But ill-fortune continued to pursue Mr. Fordyce. His combinations were as fine, his plans as skilful, as ever. His mind was as perceptive as when he first began; but unexpected facts upset his theories, and the price of the funds would not yield to his combinations. Every one said he deserved to win; but he still continued to lose. Speculation succeeded speculation; and it is remarkable, that, with all his great and continued losses, he retained to the last hour a cool and calm self-possession. After availing himself of every possible resource, his partners were surprised by his absenting himself from the banking-house. This, with other causes, occasioned an immediate stoppage, and a bankruptcy which spread far and wide. But Mr. Fordyce was not absent long. He returned at the risk of his life; the public feeling being so violent that it was necessary to guard him from the populace while he detailed a tissue of unsurpassed fraud and folly. He manfully took the blame upon himself, and exonerated his partners from all, save an undeserved confidence. It need hardly be added, that the assistance earnestly begged by Mr. Fordyce of the Bank of England was refused. Whatever impression might be entertained by others of his house, the corporation to which he applied was equally aware of his speculative propensities, as of the sphere in which he indulged them; and they refused assistance, upon a well-founded principle, to the man who employed his customers’ capital and his own energies in incessant speculations on the Stock Exchange. Fordyce, however, only advanced the crash. The Scotch bankers were the cause; and the Bank of England saw the necessity of stopping the dangerous game commenced by the Bank of Ayr. The failures continued in the commercial world. He broke half the people in town. Glyn and Halifax were gazetted as bankrupts;[3] Drummonds were only saved by General Smith, a nabob,—the original of Foot’s Sir Matthew Mite,—supporting their house with £150,000. Two gentlemen, ruined by the extravagance of the city banker, shot themselves. Throughout London the panic, equal to any thing of a later date, but of shorter duration, spread with the velocity of wildfire, and part of the press attributed to the Bank the merit of supporting the credit of the city, while part assert that it caused the panic. The first families were in tears; nor is the consternation surprising, when it is known that bills to the amount of four millions were in circulation, with the name of Fordyce attached to them. The attempts of the speculating banker to procure assistance were earnest and incessant. Among those to whom Mr. Fordyce went was a shrewd Quaker. “Friend Fordyce,” was the reply of the latter, “I have known many men ruined by two dice, but I will not be ruined by Four-dice.”