ur upon
either party, and only showed that her Ladyship was in the habit of
writing exceedingly foolish letters; as many ladies, nay gentlemen, have
done ere this. For calling the honour of his mother in question, Lord
Bullingdon assaulted his stepfather (living at Bath under the name of
Mr. Jones), and administered to him a tremendous castigation in the
Pump-Room.
His Lordship's history, since his departure, was a romantic one, which
we do not feel bound to narrate. He had been wounded in the American
War, reported dead, left prisoner, and escaped. The remittances which
were promised him were never sent; the thought of the neglect almost
broke the heart of the wild and romantic young man, and he determined to
remain dead to the world at least, and to the mother who had denied
him. It was in the woods of Canada, and three years after the event had
occurred, that he saw the death of his half-brother chronicled in
the Gentleman's Magazine, under the title of 'Fatal Accident to Lord
Viscount Castle Lyndon;' on which he determined to return to England:
where, though he made himself known, it was with very great difficulty
indeed that he satisfied Lord Tiptoff of the authenticity of his
claim. He was about to pay a visit to his lady mother at Bath, when
he recognised the well-known face of Mr. Barry Lyndon, in spite of the
modest disguise which that gentleman wore, and revenged upon his person
the insults of former days.
Lady Lyndon was furious when she heard of the rencounter; declined
to see her son, and was for rushing at once to the arms of her adored
Barry; but that gentleman had been carried off, meanwhile, from gaol to
gaol, until he was lodged in the hands of Mr. Bendigo, of Chancery Lane,
an assistant to the Sheriff of Middlesex; from whose house he went to
the Fleet Prison. The Sheriff and his assistant, the prisoner, nay, the
prison itself, are now no more.
As long as Lady Lyndon lived, Barry enjoyed his income, and was perhaps
as happy in prison as at any period of his existence; when her Ladyship
died, her successor sternly cut off the annuity, devoting the sum
to charities: which, he said, would make a nobler use of it than the
scoundrel who had enjoyed it hitherto. At his Lordship's death, in the
Spanish campaign, in the year 1811, his estate fell in to the family of
the Tiptoffs, and his title merged in their superior rank; but it does
not appear that the Marquis of Tiptoff (Lord George succeeded to the
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