t had been overlooked by
the ignorance of the times, he recognised the style of a great master,
and made a merit of recommending it to some noble friend. This commerce
he likewise extended to medals, bronzes, busts, intaglios, and old china,
and kept divers artificers continually employed in making antiques for
the English nobility. Thus he went on with such rapidity of success in
all his endeavours, that he himself was astonished at the infatuation he
had produced. Nothing was so wretched among the productions of art, that
he could not impose upon the world as a capital performance; and so
fascinated were the eyes of his admirers, he could easily have persuaded
them that a barber's bason was an Etrurian patera, and the cover of a
copper pot no other than the shield of Ancus Martius. In short, it was
become so fashionable to consult the Count in everything relating to
taste and politeness, that not a plan was drawn, not even a house
furnished, without his advice and approbation; nay, to such a degree did
his reputation in these matters excel, that a particular pattern of
paper-hangings was known by the name of Fathom; and his hall was every
morning crowded with upholsterers, and other tradesmen, who came, by
order of their employers, to learn his choice, and take his directions.

The character and influence he thus acquired, he took care to maintain
with the utmost assiduity and circumspection. He never failed to appear
the chief personage at all public diversions and private assemblies, not
only in conversation and dress, but also in the article of dancing, in
which he outstripped all his fellows, as far as in every other genteel
accomplishment.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

HE ATTRACTS THE ENVY AND ILL OFFICES OF THE MINOR KNIGHTS OF HIS OWN
ORDER, OVER WHOM HE OBTAINS A COMPLETE VICTORY.

Such a pre-eminence could not be enjoyed without exciting the malevolence
of envy and detraction, in the propagation of which none were so
industrious as the brethren of his own order, who had, like him, made a
descent upon this island, and could not, without repining, see the whole
harvest in the hands of one man, who, with equal art and discretion,
avoided all intercourse with their society. In vain they strove to
discover his pedigree, and detect the particular circumstances of his
life and conversation; all their inquiries were baffled by the obscurity
of his origin, and that solitary scheme which he had adopted in the