unruffled fortitude at the time); but there I
was, with just enough money to discharge my most pressing necessities,
with the precious Cause for which I had sacrificed my hopes of
advancement in my own regiment blown to the four corners of the
Highlands--more remote and unknown up to this time than the four
corners of the earth, though to all appearance about to undergo
such a scouring when I left them that they would be uninhabitable
for any one who was not born with the Broad Arrow printed on his
back.

I was lodging in the attic of a disreputable pot-house, kept by
one of those scurvy Scots who traded on his reputed disloyalty as
a lure to entice unfortunate gentlemen in similar plight to myself
under his roof, and then job them off to the government at so much
a head; but this I only knew of a certainty later.

It was not long, however, before I was relieved from my penury at
least, for my cousin, Lady Jane Drummond, who since my childhood
had stood towards me in the relation of a mother, hearing from me
of my position, raised me above all anxiety in that respect.

I cannot help reflecting here on the inopportuneness with which
Providence is sometimes pleased to bestow its gifts; the starving
wretch, houseless in the streets, has an appetite and a digestion
which, in this regard, make him the envy of the epicure, dowered
with a wealth useless in its most cherished application. And though
ingratitude has never been one of my faults, was it possible not
to feel some resentment at the comparative uselessness of a blessing
which fell at a time when I was debarred from any greater satisfaction
than paying my mean obligations or helping some more needy
unfortunate, while forced to look on those pleasures incidental to
a gentleman's existence with the unsatisfied eye of forbidden
indulgence?

The banker, Mr. Drummond of Charing Cross, who was an old family
friend, and through whom I had received my remittance, could or
would give me no definite information of the movements of my cousin,
Lady Jane, or of her probable arrival at London, so I had nothing
to do but await further news and occupy my time as best I might.

On my arrival I had laid aside all the outward marks of a gentleman,
dressing myself in imitation of--say a scrivener's clerk--and, save
for that bearing which is incorporate with one of my condition and
becomes a second nature, not to be disguised by any outward cloak,
I might fairly well pass for my ex