put his friend,
the fat Gent, where his readers have long been, in sweet somniferous
repose. But zounds, gentlemen, I am forgetting the count, whose pardon I
crave, for bestowing my attention on minor constellations while indulged
with the overpowering brilliancy of his meteoric presence."

"The 'Farewell to the Ring,'" vociferated the count. "Come, lieutenant,
give us the episode: I long to hear all my misfortunes strung together
in rhyme."

"By the powers, you shall have it, then; and a true history it is, as
ever was said or sung in church, chapel, or conventicle, with only one
little exception--by the free use of poetic license, the satirist has
fixed his hero in a very embarrassing situation--just locked him up at
Radford's steel Hotel in Carey Street, Chancery Lane, coning over a long
bill of John Long's, and a still longer one of the lawyers, with a sort
of codicil, by way of refresher, of the house charges, and a smoking
detainer tacked on to its tail, by Hookah Hudson, long enough to put any
gentleman's pipe out.

[Illustration: page207]

There's the argument, programme, or fable. Now for the characters; they
are all drawn from the life by the English Spy (see plate), under the
amusing title of 'Morning, and in Low Spirits, a scene in a Lock-up
House;' a very appropriate spot for a lament to the past, and

"'Tis past, and the sun of my glory is set.
How changed in my case is the fortune of war!
With no money to back, and no credit to bet,
No more in the Fancy I shine forth a star.

~208~~

"Accursed be the day when my bargeman I brought
To fight with Jos. Hudson!--the thought is a sting.
I sighing exclaim, by experience taught,
Farewell to Tom Cannon, farewell to the ring!

"By the Blackwater vict'ry made drunk with success,
Endless visions of milling enchanted my nob;
I thought my luck in: so I could do no less
Than match 'gainst the Streatham my White-headed Bob.

"I've some reason to think that there, too, I was done;
For it oft has been hinted that battle was cross'd:
But I well know that all which at Yately I won,
With a thousand _en outre_ at Bagshot I lost.

"At Warwick a turn in my favour again
Appear'd, and my crest I anew rear'd with pride;
Hudson's efforts to conquer my bargeman were vain,