side, in the
shade, a solitary individual was passing slowly along the pavement. I
knew him at a glance. It was the first poet, perhaps the greatest man,
of his age and country. But why so solitary? It had been told me that he
ranked among his friends and associates many of the highest names in the
kingdom, and yet to-night not one of the hundreds who fluttered past
appeared inclined to recognise him. He seemed too--but perhaps fancy
misled me--as if care-worn and dejected; pained, perhaps, that not one
among so many of the _great_ should have humility enough to notice a
poor exciseman. I stole up to him unobserved, and tapped him on the
shoulder; there was a decided fierceness in his manner as he turned
abruptly round, but, as he recognised me, his expressive countenance
lighted up in a moment, and I shall never forget the heartiness with
which he grasped my hand.

We quitted the streets together for the neighbouring fields, and, after
the natural interchange of mutual congratulations--"How is it," I
inquired, "that you do not seem to have a single acquaintance among all
the gay and great of the country?"

"I lie under quarantine," he replied; "tainted by the plague of
liberalism. There is not one of the hundreds we passed to-night whom I
could not once reckon among my intimates."

The intelligence stunned and irritated me. "How infinitely absurd!" I
said. "Do they dream of sinking you into a common man?"

"Even so," he rejoined. "Do they not all know I have been a gauger for
the last five years!"

The fact had both grieved and incensed me long before. I knew, too, that
Pye enjoyed his salary as poet laureate of the time, and Dibdin, the
song writer, his pension of two hundred a-year, and I blushed for my
country.

"Yes," he continued--the ill-assumed coolness of his manner giving way
before his highly excited feelings--"they have assigned me my place
among the mean and the degraded, as their best patronage; and only
yesterday, after an official threat of instant dismission, I was told
it was my business to act, not to think. God help me! what have I done
to provoke such bitter insult? I have ever discharged my miserable
duty--discharged it, Mr. Lindsay, however repugnant to my feelings,
as an honest man; and though there awaited me no promotion, I was
silent. The wives or sisters of those whom they advanced over me had
bastards to some of the ---- family, and so their influence was
necessarily greater than min