seek fresh adventure and intrigue disguised as a
porter, a beggar, or a ballad-monger. And so carefully did he hide his
identity in the character he assumed, that his most intimate friends
failed to recognise his personality.

No doubt the follies in which he indulged were in some measure due to
the eccentricity ever attendant upon genius; but they were probably
likewise occasioned by craving for excitement begotten of drink. For
my lord loved wine exceedingly; and when he drew near unto death in the
dawn of his manhood, confessed to Bishop Burnet that for five years he
was continually drunk: "Not that he was all the while under the visible
effects of it, but his blood was so inflamed, that he was not in all
that time cool enough to be perfectly master of himself." Charles
delighted in the society of this gay courtier, because of his erratic
adventures, and his love of wine. Moreover, the licentious verses which
it was the earl's good pleasure to compose, the names of some of which
no decent lips would whisper in this age of happy innocence, afforded
the monarch extravagant enjoyment. Withal his majesty's satisfaction in
Lord Rochester's wit was not always to be counted upon, as it proved.
For it came to pass one night at the close of a royal supper, during
which the earl had drunk deep, that with great goodwill to afford the
king diversion, he handed his majesty what he believed was a satire on
a courtier, more remarkable for its humour than its decency. Whereon
Charles, with anticipation of much delight, opened the folded page,
when he was surprised to see, not a copy of verses, but an unflattering
description of himself, which ran as follows:

"Here lies our mutton-eating king,
Whose word no man relies on;
Who never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one."

Now the king, though the best tempered of men and most lenient of
masters, was naturally wrathful at this verbal character: the more so
because recognising its faithfulness at a glance. He therefore upbraided
Rochester with ingratitude, and banished him from the court.

Nothing dismayed, my lord retired into the country; but in a short
time, growing weary of pastoral solitude which gave him an appetite for
adventure it could not wholly supply, he returned privately to town, and
assuming a disguise, took up his residence in the city. Here exercising
his characteristic tact, and great capacity for pleasing, he
speedily made frien