LIFE OF MYTTON. 183 



appeared, was anything but what I could have desired. 

 My pen was at that time employed on a very interest- 

 ing subject, and I knew, from past experience, how 

 many times in the day I should be interrupted by him. 

 But I had shared his prosperity, and I was not going 

 to desert him in his adversity. He did not, however, 

 want for society at Calais. He gave dinners at his 

 hotel ; and as Epicurus's wise man would cultivate 

 friendship, as he would the earth, y^r what it produces, 

 there were plenty such wise men to be found in 

 Calais.'" This, however, was not the worst of it. 

 Still wiser men followed him from London, as I 

 shall straightways take occasion to show, as also how 

 fortunately their designs were frustrated. 



Although my house, with its humble fare, was 

 always open to Mr Mytton, I never made one of his 

 dinner-parties ; but one evening, about nine o'clock, 

 he came into my dining-room, accompanied by a man 

 in a rough great-coat, whom he introduced as alivery- 



• Here the character of the man appears in its true colour. One 

 gentleman, previously unknown to him, borrowed his coat, with the 

 Anson hunt button on it, — rather unceremoniously, as he said, — to go 

 to a ball. He ordered his valet to line the gentleman's own coat sleeves 

 with fish-hooks against he called for it the next day. 



