James's Street,
which has since expanded into a palace. I stoutly battled the foe, for I
"took no note of time" during the next day and night; and when at last I
walked forth into the air, I found that I had relieved myself of the
burden of three-fourths of my reversion. A weak mind on such an occasion
would have cursed the cards, and talked of taking care of the fragment
of his property; but mine was of the higher order, and I determined on
revenge. I had my revenge, and saw my winners ruined. They had their
consolation, and at the close of a six months' campaign saw me walk into
the streets a beggar. I grew desperate, and was voted dangerous. I
realized the charge by fastening on a noble lord who had been one of the
most adroit in pigeoning me. His life was "too valuable to his country,"
or himself, to allow him to meet a fellow whose life was of no use to
any living thing; and through patriotism and the fear of being shot, he
kept out of my way. I raged, threatened to post his lordship, and was in
the very act of writing out the form of the placard declaring the noble
heir of the noble house of ---- a cheat and a scoundrel, when by the
twopenny-post I received a notice from the Horse Guards that I was on
that day to appear in the Gazette as an ensign in his majesty's ----
regiment, then serving in the Peninsula, with orders to join without
delay.
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