to what extent, culpability is to be attached in this affair: Brummell might have hoped that a turn of luck would enable him to retrieve his losses, and repay those of whom he had borrowed; and as to the punctuality attending the payment of play-debts at White's and Brookes's, it does not appear that a want of it was at all unusual,—that is, if we are to judge by the letters of Sheridan, Fitzpatrick, and others. The impossibility, however, of settling this quarrel, is assigned by Lord Byron as the reason which led to Brummell's departure from England. "When Brummell," says his Lordship, "was obliged by that affair of poor M, who thence acquired the name of Dick the Dandy-killer (it was about money, and debt, and all that), to retire to France," &c., &c. Certain it is that he was well acquainted with the money-lenders, for several of these parchments emerged from their obscurity during Brummell's sojourn at Calais. Some of these bonds were drawn by Lord C—, the Marquis of, and George Bryan Brummell, and, as fragments of them were occasionally sent to one of his friends there, to mix his snuff in, it may be presumed that at least a few of these proofs of mutual love and affection had been redeemed; but there is also every reason for supposing that, in similar transactions, several of his obligations were left unfulfilled : those who were parties to them suffered of course by his departure, and I believe no one more so than Lord R- M.

Among the numerous anecdotes with which he has

been charged, is one which applies specially to his indifference on these matters. According to this on dit, Brummell once consented to borrow five hundred pounds of an individual who, from his position in society, had some difficulty in getting introduced into the world of fashion, and who hoped that his assistance in the emergency referred to, would secure him, through the Beau's influence, the much-desired honour: it did so, but not exactly in the manner that he expected, for, when in Brummell's decadence his applications for payment became frequent, and of course annoying, the falling meteor at last replied, that he had already paid him: "Paid me," said Mr. "When?" "When?" re- echoed Brummell, with assumed indignation, "why, when I was standing at the window at White's, and said as you passed—Ah, how do you do, Jemmy?" But verily "there is a tide in the affairs of men," particularly in such men, and it was a neap one with him: Fortune, who had been his housekeeper so long, now fairly gave him warning; it was useless calling for fresh cards, the game was up. Yet, great as his extravagance was, it was play that completed his ruin; had he refrained from gaming, he might have lived all his life on the sunny side of St. James's Street! and been buried by the side of his respectable ancestor, in the churchyard of that parish, instead of wearing away a monotonous existence upon the charity of his friends, in pacing the dirty streets of a continental town.

Brummell had a very odd way of accounting for

the sad change which took place in his affairs at this time. "He used," observes one of his friends at Caen, "when talking about his altered circumstances, to say, that up to a particular period of his life everything prospered with him, and that he attributed this good luck to the possession of a certain silver sixpence, with a hole in it, which somebody had given him years before, with an injunction to take good care of it, as everything would go well with him so long as he did, and vice versa, if he happened to lose it. The promised prosperity attended him for many years, whilst he held the sixpence fast; but having at length, in an evil hour, unfortunately given it by mistake to a hackney-coachman, a complete reverse of his previous good fortune took place, and one disastrous occurrence succeeded to another, till actual ruin overtook him at last, and obliged him to expatriate himself. On my asking him why he did not advertise, and offer a reward for the lost treasure, he said, 'I did, and twenty people came with sixpences having holes in them to obtain the promised reward, but mine was not amongst them.' 'And you never afterwards,' said I, 'ascertained what became of it?' 'Oh yes!' he replied, 'no doubt that rascal Rothschild, or some of his set, got hold of it.' If you think the foregoing plaisanterie worth inserting, do so; I can vouch for its authenticity, as it occurred in conversation with myself. Whatever poor Brummell's superstitious tendencies may have generally been, he had unquestionably a superstitious veneration for his

VOL. I.

U

lost sixpence." But to continue: a cloud also had for some time been gathering over his fame as well as his fortunes; the prestige of his name was going, and his fiat no longer regarded; public events had eclipsed him, and the ladies of the beau monde were far more interested in hero-worship, or in procuring a hair from the tail of Platoff's horse, than securing the good opinion of the once all-powerful dictator. Brummell and Buonaparte, who had hitherto divided the attention of the world, fell almost together; the former being doomed to the mortification of seeing his share bestowed on the sea-fight in the Serpentine, the Chinese Pagoda, and Oldenburg hats, and his cleanliness forgotten in that of the fierce sons of the Don.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Symptoms of a Move—Brummell's Epistle to his Friend Scrope Davis— The Wit's Laconic Reply-His Extraordinary Penchant at CollegeBrummell Cuts his Cable, and Comes to an Anchor at Calais-The Author passes through that Town-Boxing, Gouging, and the Savatte-The Table d'Hôte at the Royal-The Mysterious StrangerA Walk on the Market-Place-English Refugees-Various Reasons for Expatriation.

Ar length the pressing solicitations of the Dandykiller made London-London, in the height of the season-positively unpleasant to the unfortunate Antonio, who would perhaps have given a pound of flesh, ay, and perhaps more, to have averted the crisis; but his creditor was no Shylock, and ducats there were none, so there was but one alternative left, and on the 16th of May, 1816, he suddenly retired from the stage on which he had played such a conspicuous part. On this eventful Thursday, he dined off a cold fowl and a bottle of claret, which was sent him from Watier's, and it is said that only a few hours before he took wing, he wrote the following laconic note to one of his intimes :—

"MY DEAR SCROPE,-Lend me two hundred pounds; the banks are shut, and all my money is in the three