he
industrious poor were to pay for these cursed extravagances; that the
city beauties were not inferior to those of the other end of the town,
and yet a sober husband in this quarter of the town was satisfied with
one wife; after which, to out-do their murmurings, he said, that he
wondered Whitehall was not yet consumed by fire from heaven, since such
rakes as Rochester, Killegrew, and Sidney were suffered there, who had
the impudence to assert that all married men in the city were cuckolds,
and all their wives painted. This conduct endeared him so much to the
cits, and made him so welcome at their clubs, that at last he grew sick
of their cramming and endless invitations.

But, instead of approaching nearer the court, he retreated into one of
the most obscure corners of the city: where, again changing both his name
and his dress, in order to act a new part, he caused bills to be
dispersed, giving notice of "The recent arrival of a famous German
doctor, who, by long application and experience, had found out wonderful
secrets, and infallible remedies."

[Bishop Burnet confirms this account.--"Being under an unlucky
accident, which obliged him to keep out of the way, he disguised
himself so, that his nearest friends could not have known him, and
set up in Tower Street for an Italian mountebank, where he practised
physic for some weeks, not without success. In his latter years he
read books of history more. He took pleasure to disguise himself as
a porter, or as a beggar; sometimes to follow some mean amours,
which, for the variety of them, he affected. At other times, merely
for diversion, he would go about in odd shapes; in which he acted
his part so naturally, that even those who were in the secret, and
saw him in these shapes, could perceive nothing by which he might be
discovered."--Burnet's Life of Rochester, ed. 1774, p. 14.]

His secrets consisted in knowing what was past, and foretelling what was
to come, by the assistance of astrology: and the virtue of his remedies
principally consisted in giving present relief to unfortunate young women
in all manner of diseases, and all kinds of accidents incident to the
fair sex, either from too unbounded charity to their neighbours, or too
great indulgence to themselves.

His first practice being confined to his neighbourhood, was not very
considerable; but his reputation soon extending to the other end of the
town, there presently fl