yndon, which he is unworthy of, but
the shameful nature of his conduct towards your Ladyship; his brutal
and ungentlemanlike behaviour, his open infidelity, his habits of
extravagance, intoxication, his shameless robberies and swindling of my
property and yours. It is these insults to you which shock and annoy me,
more than the ruffian's infamous conduct to myself. I would have stood
by your Ladyship as I promised, but you seem to have taken latterly
your husband's part; and, as I cannot personally chastise this low-bred
ruffian, who, to our shame be it spoken, is the husband of my mother;
and as I cannot bear to witness his treatment of you, and loathe his
horrible society as if it were the plague, I am determined to quit my
native country: at least during his detested life, or during my own.
I possess a small income from my father, of which I have no doubt Mr.
Barry will cheat me if he can; but which, if your Ladyship has some
feelings of a mother left, you will, perhaps, award to me. Messrs.
Childs, the bankers, can have orders to pay it to me when due; if they
receive no such orders, I shall be not in the least surprised, knowing
you to be in the hands of a villain who would not scruple to rob on
the highway; and shall try to find out some way in life for myself more
honourable than that by which the penniless Irish adventurer has arrived
to turn me out of my rights and home.'

This mad epistle was signed 'Bullingdon,' and all the neighbours vowed
that I had been privy to his flight, and would profit by it; though I
declare on my honour my true and sincere desire, after reading the above
infamous letter, was to have the author within a good arm's length of
me, that I might let him know my opinion regarding him. But there was no
eradicating this idea from people's minds, who insisted that I wanted
to kill Bullingdon; whereas murder, as I have said, was never one of my
evil qualities: and even had I wished to injure my young enemy ever so
much, common prudence would have made my mind easy, as I knew he was
going to ruin his own way.

It was long before we heard of the fate of the audacious young truant;
but after some fifteen months had elapsed, I had the pleasure of being
able to refute some of the murderous calumnies which had been uttered
against me, by producing a bill with Bullingdon's own signature, drawn
from General Tarleton's army in America, where my company was conducting
itself with the greatest glory, an