our colonial
assemblies, and see how readily you will get it. But if you wish war,
persist in trying to grind the spirit from a people who have in them the
pride of your own ancestors. Yes, you are estranging the colonies,
gentlemen. A greater man than I has warned you"

And with that I rose, believing that I had given them all mortal offence.
To my astonishment several got to their feet in front of me, huzzaing,
and Comyn and Lord Ossory grasped my hands. And Charles Fox reached out
over the corner of the table and pulled me back into my chair.

"Bravo, Richard Carvel!" he cried. "Cursed if I don't love a man who
will put up a fight against odds. Who will stand bluff to what he
believes, and won't be talked out of his boots. We won't quarrel with
any such here, my buckskin, I can tell you."

And that is the simple story, my dears, of the beginning of my friendship
with one who may rightly be called the Saint Paul of English politics.
He had yet some distance to go, alas, ere he was to begin that sturdy
battle for the right for which his countrymen and ours will always bless
him. I gave him my hand with a better will than I had ever done
anything, and we pressed our fingers numb. And his was not the only hand
I clasped. And honest Jack Comyn ordered more wine, that they might
drink to a speedy reconciliation with America.

"A pint bumper to Richard Carvel!" said Mr. Fitzpatrick.

I pledged Brooks's Club in another pint. Upon which they swore that I
was a good fellow, and that if all American Whigs were like me, all cause
of quarrel was at an end. Of this I was not so sure, nor could I see
that the question had been settled one way or another. And that night I
had reason to thank the Reverend Mr. Allen, for the first and last time
in my life, that I could stand a deal of liquor, and yet not roll bottom
upward.

The dinner was settled on the Baptist, who paid for it without a murmur.
And then we adjourned to the business of the evening. The great
drawing-room, lighted by an hundred candles, was filled with gayly
dressed macaronies, and the sound of their laughter and voices in
contention mingled with the pounding of the packs on the mahogany and the
rattle of the dice and the ring of the gold pieces. The sight was
dazzling, and the noise distracting. Fox had me under his especial care,
and I was presented to young gentlemen who bore names that had been the
boast of England through the centuries. Lands their forebear