vain confidence to his royal father, miserable paupers. That he should know

of our existence, and treat us, near at hand, with the same contumely which

his father had practised in distance and absence, appeared to me the

certain consequence of all that had gone before. Thus then I should meet

this titled stripling--the son of my father's friend. He would be hedged

in by servants; nobles, and the sons of nobles, were his companions; all

England rang with his name; and his coming, like a thunderstorm, was heard

from far: while I, unlettered and unfashioned, should, if I came in contact

with him, in the judgment of his courtly followers, bear evidence in my

very person to the propriety of that ingratitude which had made me the

degraded being I appeared.

With my mind fully occupied by these ideas, I might be said as if

fascinated, to haunt the destined abode of the young Earl. I watched the

progress of the improvements, and stood by the unlading waggons, as various

articles of luxury, brought from London, were taken forth and conveyed into

the mansion. It was part of the Ex-Queen's plan, to surround her son with

princely magnificence. I beheld rich carpets and silken hangings, ornaments

of gold, richly embossed metals, emblazoned furniture, and all the

appendages of high rank arranged, so that nothing but what was regal in

splendour should reach the eye of one of royal descent. I looked on these;

I turned my gaze to my own mean dress.--Whence sprung this difference?

Whence but from ingratitude, from falsehood, from a dereliction on the part

of the prince's father, of all noble sympathy and generous feeling.

Doubtless, he also, whose blood received a mingling tide from his proud

mother--he, the acknowledged focus of the kingdom's wealth and nobility,

The Last Man