«2 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



But there was this peculiarity in them : I am quite 

 sure Mr. Mytton never attempted the wife of a friend 

 — no, nor even his mistress ! Each would have been 

 as safe in his hands as the beautiful captive was in 

 those of Scipio, or the wife and daughters of Darius 

 in the tent of Alexander the Great. Indeed I never 

 heard of his laying siege to the virtue of any woman, 

 but if in the market, he was sure to be the best 

 bidder ; and I fear I must own that he once or twice 

 took it by storm. Some of his offers for capitulation, 

 however, were truly ridiculous, though all in character 

 with the man. For example, he once wrote a note 

 to a certain celebrated singer, whom he had only 

 seen for half-an-hour, at a musical festival, request- 

 ing the honour of an interview the next day, and 

 enclosing a cheque at sight, on the Oswestry bank, 

 for five hundred guineas ! The lady — who all 

 the world knows would have been quite satisfied 

 with a ten-pound note — having luckily never heard 

 either of John Mytton or the Oswestry bank, re- 

 turned the note with its valuable contents. This 

 reminds me of the following lines in a poem called 

 " The Passions," a fair specimen of heterogeneous 

 pathos : — 



