was neglected like the former.

He was still in his usual exigencies, having no certain support but the
pension allowed him by the queen, which, though it might have kept an
exact economist from want, was very far from being sufficient for Mr.
Savage, who had never been accustomed to dismiss any of his appetites
without the gratification which they solicited, and whom nothing but
want of money withheld from partaking of every pleasure that fell within
his view. His conduct with regard to his pension was very particular.
No sooner had he changed the bill than he vanished from the sight of
all his acquaintance, and lay for some time out of the reach of all the
inquiries that friendship or curiosity could make after him. At length
he appeared again, penniless as before, but never informed even those
whom he seemed to regard most where he had been; nor was his retreat
ever discovered. This was his constant practice during the whole time
that he received the pension from the queen: he regularly disappeared
and returned. He, indeed, affirmed that he retired to study, and that
the money supported him in solitude for many months; but his friends
declared that the short time in which it was spent sufficiently confuted
his own account of his conduct.

His politeness and his wit still raised him friends who were desirous
of setting him at length free from that indigence by which he had been
hitherto oppressed; and therefore solicited Sir Robert Walpole in his
favour with so much earnestness that they obtained a promise of the
next place that should become vacant, not exceeding two hundred pounds
a year. This promise was made with an uncommon declaration, "that it was
not the promise of a minister to a petitioner, but of a friend to his
friend."

Mr. Savage now concluded himself set at ease for ever, and, as he
observes in a poem written on that incident of his life, trusted, and
was trusted; but soon found that his confidence was ill-grounded,
and this friendly promise was not inviolable. He spent a long time in
solicitations, and at last despaired and desisted. He did not indeed
deny that he had given the minister some reason to believe that he
should not strengthen his own interest by advancing him, for he had
taken care to distinguish himself in coffee-houses, as an advocate for
the ministry of the last years of Queen Anne, and was always ready to
justify the conduct, and exalt the character, of Lord Bolingbroke, whom
he men