fashion, looked with harsh eyes on his defects, and with contempt on the

affection her royal husband entertained for him. My father felt that his

fall was near; but so far from profiting by this last calm before the storm

to save himself, he sought to forget anticipated evil by making still

greater sacrifices to the deity of pleasure, deceitful and cruel arbiter of

his destiny.

The king, who was a man of excellent dispositions, but easily led, had now

become a willing disciple of his imperious consort. He was induced to look

with extreme disapprobation, and at last with distaste, on my father's

imprudence and follies. It is true that his presence dissipated these

clouds; his warm-hearted frankness, brilliant sallies, and confiding

demeanour were irresistible: it was only when at a distance, while still

renewed tales of his errors were poured into his royal friend's ear, that

he lost his influence. The queen's dextrous management was employed to

prolong these absences, and gather together accusations. At length the king

was brought to see in him a source of perpetual disquiet, knowing that he

should pay for the short-lived pleasure of his society by tedious homilies,

and more painful narrations of excesses, the truth of which he could not

disprove. The result was, that he would make one more attempt to reclaim

him, and in case of ill success, cast him off for ever.

Such a scene must have been one of deepest interest and high-wrought

passion. A powerful king, conspicuous for a goodness which had heretofore

made him meek, and now lofty in his admonitions, with alternate entreaty

and reproof, besought his friend to attend to his real interests,

The Last Man