added to which I had a run of ill-luck at play, and was forced to
meet my losses by the most shameful sacrifices to the money-lenders, by
pawning part of Lady Lyndon's diamonds (that graceless little Rosemont
wheedled me out of some of them), and by a thousand other schemes for
raising money. But when Honour is in the case, was I ever found backward
at her call: and what man can say that Barry Lyndon lost a bet which he
did not pay?

As for my ambitious hopes regarding the Irish peerage, I began, on my
return, to find out that I had been led wildly astray by that rascal
Lord Crabs; who liked to take my money, but had no more influence to get
me a coronet than to procure for me the Pope's tiara. The Sovereign was
not a whit more gracious to me on returning from the Continent than he
had been before my departure; and I had it from one of the aides-de-camp
of the Royal Dukes his brothers, that my conduct and amusements at Paris
had been odiously misrepresented by some spies there, and had formed
the subject of Royal comment; and that the King had, influenced by these
calumnies, actually said I was the most disreputable man in the three
kingdoms. I disreputable! I a dishonour to my name and country! When
I heard these falsehoods, I was in such a rage that I went off to Lord
North at once to remonstrate with the Minister; to insist upon being
allowed to appear before His Majesty and clear myself of the imputations
against me, to point out my services to the Government in voting with
them, and to ask when the reward that had been promised to me--viz., the
title held by my ancestors--was again to be revived in my person?

There was a sleepy coolness in that fat Lord North which was the most
provoking thing that the Opposition had ever to encounter from him.
He heard me with half-shut eyes. When I had finished a long violent
speech--which I made striding about his room in Downing Street, and
gesticulating with all the energy of an Irishman--he opened one eye,
smiled, and asked me gently if I had done. On my replying in the
affirmative, he said, 'Well, Mr. Barry, I'll answer you, point by point.
The King is exceedingly averse to make peers, as you know. Your claims,
as you call them, HAVE been laid before him, and His Majesty's gracious
reply was, that you were the most impudent man in his dominions, and
merited a halter rather than a coronet. As for withdrawing your support
from us, you are perfectly welcome to carry yourself