needs carry me up to town to make a man of me. There as a young lad I
was presented at Court, and being a slim active youngster with a pert
tongue and assured manner, I caught the notice of the Queen, who made
me one of her pages of honour. This post I held until I grew out of
it, when I withdrew from town, but egad! I found I must get back to it
again, for Beacham Ford Park was as dull as a monastery after the life
which I had been living. In town I stayed then with such boon companions
as Tommy Lawson, my Lord Halifax, Sir Jasper Lemarck, little Geordie
Chichester, aye, and old Sidney Godolphin of the Treasury; for with all
his staid ways and long-winded budgets he could drain a cup with the
best of us, and was as keen on a main of cocks as on a committee of ways
and means. Well, it was rare sport while it lasted, and sink me if
I wouldn't do the same again if I had my time once more. It is like
sliding down a greased plank though, for at first a man goes slow
enough, and thinks he can pull himself up, but presently he goes faster
and faster, until he comes with a crash on to the rocks of ruin at the
bottom.'

'And did you run through four thousand pounds a year?' I exclaimed.

'Od's bodikins, man, you speak as if this paltry sum were all the
wealth of the Indies. Why, from Ormonde or Buckingham, with their twenty
thousand, down to ranting Dicky Talbot, there was not one of my set who
could not have bought me out. Yet I must have my coach and four, my town
house, my liveried servants, and my stable full of horses. To be in the
mode I must have my poet, and throw him a handful of guineas for his
dedication. Well, poor devil, he is one who will miss me. I warrant his
heart was as heavy as his verses when he found me gone, though perchance
he has turned a few guineas by this time by writing a satire upon me.
It would have a ready sale among my friends. Gad's life! I wonder how
my levees get on, and whom all my suitors have fastened on to now. There
they were morning after morning, the French pimp, the English bully, the
needy man o' letters, the neglected inventor--I never thought to have
got rid of them, but indeed I have shaken them off very effectually now.
When the honey-pot is broken it is farewell to the flies.'

'And your noble friends?' I asked. 'Did none of them stand by you in
your adversity?'

'Well, well, I have nought to complain of!' exclaimed Sir Gervas. 'They
were brave-hearted boys for the most part