LIFE OF MYTTON. 207 



and in which he once sat high in the people's hearts : 

 and also in relation to the altered situation in which 

 he himself once stood towards the keeper of that 

 prison. The governorship becoming vacant, the con- 

 test for it was a severe one, and it was solely by 

 the influence and exertions of Mr. Mytton that the 

 then gaoler, Mr. Griffiths, filled it. He, however, 

 not only did credit, but honour, to his benefactor's 

 choice, as no man in Shrewsbury was, I believe, more 

 respected than he, neither could any man exceed him 

 in the various and arduous duties he had to perform, 

 tempering mercy with justice ; and although Shake- 

 speare says, " Seldom when the steeled gaoler is the 

 friend of man," Mr. Griffiths was unceasing in his 

 kind attention to his patron, now become his prisoner. 

 Indeed Mr. Mytton not only acknowledged this to 

 me, but told me he was very comfortable in Shrews- 

 bury gaol ! 



On a writ of certiorari being executed, my poor 

 degraded friend was conveyed to London, in the cus- 

 tody of Mr. Griffiths, and transferred to that of the 

 Marshal of the King's Bench, where I saw him for 

 the first time since he left the chateau in France. 

 But what a change for the worse was here! He was 

 the same bloated, unhealthy-lookino;- son of Bacchus 



