rity of Ratchcali, which he had been always at pains to
restrain, and permitting him to practise the same fraud upon an English
nobleman, which had been executed upon himself at Frankfort. In other
words, the Tyrolese, by the canal of Ferdinand's finger and
recommendation, sold a pebble for a real brilliant, and in a few days the
cheat was discovered, to the infinite confusion of our adventurer, who
nevertheless assumed the guise of innocence with so much art, and
expressed such indignation against the villain who had imposed upon his
judgment and unsuspecting generosity, that his lordship acquitted him of
any share in the deceit, and contented himself with the restitution,
which he insisted upon making out of his own pocket, until he should be
able to apprehend the rogue, who had thought proper to abscond for his
own safety. In spite of all this exculpation, his character did not fail
to retain a sort of stigma, which indeed the plainest proofs of innocence
are hardly able to efface; and his connexion with such a palpable knave
as the Tyrolese appeared to be, had an effect to his prejudice in the
minds of all those who were privy to the occurrence.

When a man's reputation is once brought in question, every trifle is, by
the malevolence of mankind, magnified into a strong presumption against
the culprit. A few whispers communicated by the envious mouth of
slander, which he can have no opportunity to answer and refute, shall, in
the opinion of the world, convict him of the most horrid crimes; and for
one hypocrite who is decked with the honours of virtue, there are twenty
good men who suffer the ignominy of vice; so well disposed are
individuals to trample upon the fame of their fellow-creatures. If the
most unblemished merit is not protected from this injustice, it will not
be wondered at that no quarter was given to the character of an
adventurer like Fathom, who, among other unlucky occurrences, had the
misfortune to be recognised about this time by his two Parisian friends,
Sir Stentor Stile and Sir Giles Squirrel.

These worthy knights-errant had returned to their own country, after
having made a very prosperous campaign in France, at the end of which,
however, they very narrowly escaped the galleys; and seeing the Polish
Count seated at the head of taste and politeness, they immediately
circulated the story of his defeat at Paris, with many ludicrous
circumstances of their own invention, and did not scruple to