*  I  am,  &c.'

Still  his  good  humour  did  not  desert  him ;  he  joked  about
their  poverty  on  the  road,  and  wrote  an  amusing  account  of
their  journey  to  a  friend,  winding  up  with  the  well-known
lines  : —

'  Be  kind  to  my  remains,  and  oh !  defend,
Against  your  judgment,  your  departed  friend.'

His  mind  was  as  vigorous  as  ever,  in  spite  of  the  waste
of  many  debauches ;  and  when  recommended  to  make  a  new
translation  of  '  Telemachus,'  he  actually  devoted  one  whole
day  to  the  work ;  the  next  he  forgot  all  about  it.  In  the
same  manner  he  began  a  play  on  the  story  of  Mary  Queen
of  Scots,  and  Lady  M.  W.  Montagu  wrote  an  epilogue  for  it,
but  the  piece  never  got  beyond  a  few  scenes.  His  genius,
perhaps,  was  not  for  either  poetry  or  the  drama.  His  mind
was  a  keen,  clear  one,  better  suited  to  argument  and  to
grapple  tough  polemic  subjects.  Had  he  but  been  a  sober
man,  he  might  have  been  a  fair,  if  not  a  great  writer.  The
'True  Briton,'  with  many  faults  of  licence,  shows  what  his
capabilities  were.  His  absence  of  moral  sense  may  be
guessed  from  the  fact  that  in  a  poem  on  the  preaching  of
Atterbury,  he  actually  compares  the  bishop  to  our  Saviour
himself !

At  length  he  reached  Bilboa  and  his  regiment,  and  had  to
live  on  the  meagre  pay  of  eighteen  pistoles  a  month.  The
Duke  of  Ormond,  then  an  exile,  took  pity  on  his  wife,  and
supported  her  for  a  time :  she  afterwards  rejoined  her  mother
at  Madrid.
HIS  DEATH  IN  A  BEENARD1NE  CONVENT.
