tter, eggs, and rolls. While Sheridan was Paymaster of the Navy, a
butcher one day brought a leg of mutton to the kitchen. The cook took it
and clapped it in the pot to boil, and went upstairs for the money; but
not returning, the butcher coolly removed the pot lid, took out the
mutton, and walked away with it in his tray.[1] Yet, while living in
these straits, Sheridan, when invited with his son into the country,
usually went in two chaises and four--he in one, and his son Tom
following in the other.

[Footnote 1: Haydon--_Autobiography_, vol. ii., p. 104.]

The end of all was very sad. For some weeks before his death he was
nearly destitute of the means of subsistence. His noble and royal
friends had entirely deserted him. Executions for debt were in his
house, and he passed his last days in the custody of sheriffs' officers,
who abstained from conveying him to prison merely because they were
assured that to remove him would cause his immediate death.[2]

[Footnote 2: _Memoirs of the Life of Sir S. Romilly,_ vol. iii., p.
262.]

The Cardinal de Retz sold off everything to pay his debts, but he did
not recover his liberty. He described the perpetual anguish of the
debtor. He even preferred confinement in the Castle of Vincennes, to
being exposed to the annoyances of his creditors. Mirabeau's life was
one of perpetual debt; for he was a dreadful spendthrift. The only mode
by which his father could keep him out of scrapes, was by obtaining a
_lettre de cachet,_ and having him-safely imprisoned. Though Mirabeau
wielded the powers of the State, when he died he was so poor, or had
been so extravagant, that he was still indebted to the tailor for his
wedding suit.

Lamartine ran through half-a-dozen fortunes, and at the end of his life
was "sending round the hat." Lamartine boldly proclaimed that he hated
arithmetic, "that negative of every noble thought." He was accordingly
driven to very shabby shifts to live. The _Cours de Litterature_ alone
brought him in 200,000 francs a year, yet 'the money ran through his
hands like quicksilver. His debts are said to have amounted to three
millions of francs; yet his style of living remained unchanged. One of
his enthusiastic admirers, having stinted himself in subscribing towards
the repurchase of the Lamartine estates, went into a fishmonger's one
day to purchase a piece of turbot. It was too dear for his means. A
distinguished-looking personage entered, paused for a moment bef