178 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



know that, being in fear of arrest by creditors, he 

 sojourned for some time at a small hotel in Rich- 

 mond,* from which place are to be dated circum- 

 stances and events deeply affecting his future short 

 .but melancholy term of life. 



On the 5th of November 1S31, during my resi- 

 'dence in the town of Calais, I was surprised by a 

 violent knocking at my door, and so unlike what I 

 had ever heard before in that quiet town, that, being 

 at hand, I was induced to open the door myself; 

 when, to my no little astonishment, there stood John 

 Mytton ! "In God's name," said I, "what has 

 brought you to France?" " \Miy," he replied, "■J7ist 

 wliat brought yoiiTsclf to France; (parodying the old 

 song) three couple of bailies were hard at my brush." 

 But what did I see before me ? The active, vigorous, 

 well-shapen John Mytton, whom I had left some 

 years back in Shropshire ? Oh, no ! Compared with 

 him, 'twas the " reed shaken by the wind ; " there 

 stood before me a round-shouldered, decrepit, totter- 



* Before going there, I believe he was a good deal at one of the 

 fashionable bachelor hotels in Bond Street, where he might be seen 

 sitting down to dinner with bailiffs, money-lenders, and ragamuffins of 

 all sorts, who haunted and followed him wherever he went. 



