but said it was of no use--no use whatever; that instead of L1,250 he
had other bills coming in, and unless they could all be met he might
just as well let the others go.

"How much do you _really_ want to quite clear you?" I asked, with a
simplicity which astonishes me to this day.

"Well," he said, "nothing is of the least use under L2,500."

I was a little staggered, but, pitying his distress of mind, went once
more to my bankers' and made the further necessary arrangements. I
borrowed the whole amount at five per cent., and placed it to the
credit of this brilliant Queen's Counsel.

The only terms I made with him on this new condition of things was
that he should, out of his incoming fees, pay my clerk L500 a quarter
until the whole sum was liquidated. This he might easily have done,
and this he arranged to do; but the next day he pledged the whole of
his prospective income to a Jew, incurred fresh liabilities, and left
me without a shadow of a chance of ever seeing a penny of my money
again. I need not say every farthing was lost, principal and interest.
I say interest, because it cost me five per cent, till the amount was
paid.

His end was as romantic as his life, but it is best told in the words
of my old friend Charley Colman, who never spares colour when it is
necessary, and in that respect is an artist who resembles Nature. Thus
he writes:--

"What a coward at heart was ----! He allowed himself to be sat upon and
crushed without raising a hand or voice in his defence of himself.
When he returned from America he accepted a seat in ---- office--in
the office of the man who urged Lord ---- to prosecute him.

"After your gift to him--a noble gift of L3,000--he called at my
chambers, spoke in high terms of your generosity, and wished all the
world to know it, so elated was he. I was to publish it far and wide.
He went away. In half an hour he returned, and begged me to keep the
affair secret. 'Too late,' said I. 'Several gentlemen have been here,
and to them I mentioned the matter, and begged them to spread it far
and wide.' His heart failed him when he thought he would be talked
about.

"He was a kind-hearted fellow at times--generous to a fault, always
most abstemious; but he had a tongue, and one he did not try to
control. He used to say stinging things of people, knowing them to be
untrue.

"What a life! What a terrible fate was his! Turned out of Parliament;
made to resign his Benchership; his g