The Pilot of the Ship I embarked in, who industriously ran upon every Rock, has at last split the Vessel, and so much of a sudden, that the whole Crew, I mean his Domesticks, are all left to swim for their Lives, without one friendly Plank to assist them to Shore.  In short, he left me sick, in Debt, and without a Penny; but as I begin to recover, and have a little time to Think, I can’t help considering myself, as one whisk’d up behind a Witch upon a Broomstick, and hurried over Mountains and Dales through confus’d Woods and thorny Thickets, and when the Charm is ended, and the poor Wretch dropp’d in a Desart, he can give no other Account of his enchanted Travels, but that he is much fatigued in Body and Mind, his Cloaths torn, and worse in all other Circumstances, without being of the least Service to himself or any body else.  But I will follow your Advice with an active Resolution, to retrieve my bad Fortune, and almost a Year miserably misspent.

’But notwithstanding what I have suffered, and what my Brother Mad-man has done to undo himself, and every body who was so unlucky to have the least Concern with him, I could not but be movingly touch’d at so extraordinary a Vicissitude of Fortune, to see a great Man fallen from that shining Light, in which I beheld him in the House of Lords, to such a Degree of Obscurity, that I have observ’d the meanest Commoner here decline, and the Few he would sometimes fasten on, to be tired of his Company; for you know he is but a bad Orator in his Cups, and of late he has been but seldom sober.

’A week before he left Paris, he was so reduced, that he had not one single Crown at Command, and was forc’d to thrust in with any Acquaintance for a Lodging; Walsh and I have had him by Turns, all to avoid a Crowd of Duns, which he had of all Sizes, from Fourteen hundred Livres to Four, who hunted him so close, that he was forced to retire to some of the neighbouring Villages for Safety.  I, sick as I was, hurried about Paris to raise Money, and to St. Germain’s to get him Linen; I bought him one Shirt and a Cravat, which with 500 Livres, his whole Stock, he and his Duchess, attended by one Servant, set out for Spain.  All the News I have heard of them since is that a Day or two after, he sent for Captain Brierly, and two or three of his Domesticks, to follow him; but none but the Captain obey’d the Summons.  Where they are now, I can’t tell, but fear they must be in great Distress by this Time, if he has no other Supplies; and so ends my Melancholy Story.

    ‘I am, &c.’

Still his good-humour did not desert him; he joked about their poverty on the road, and wrote an amusing account of their journey to a friend, winding up with the well-known lines:—­

    ’Be kind to my remains, and oh! defend,
     Against your judgment, your departed friend.’