"Of himself I can tell you little; with his father I was very intimate long ago, and I believe, somehow or other, people do always contrive to be like either father or mother, some time or another in their life. Of the father I could tell you, that there did not exist a more polished or high-bred man, a term which you know is not always justly applicable to persons of high rank; one very well versed in literature too, at least for the peerage in that day, and so long as he continued in public life, no one acted more to the general satisfaction of people than my Lord Tresyllian. Of the mother there is little to say, except that she was--nay is, for aught I know to the contrary--a very good sort of person; who was never known to make any noise, save once, in her life, and that certainly was not on a judicious occasion, for it was when the famous Bellina, the dancer, was _attachée_ to the suite of her husband during his embassy at ----. Then indeed Lady Tresyllian did make some very unadvised stir, and contrived that the whole court should remark upon the subject; but her husband, who was the most polite man in the world, as I have said before, represented to her the inutility of such conduct, pointed out how such a lady, and such a one, conducted herself in similar situations; stated that these sort of things always happened, and were only unpleasant when they were injudiciously managed, and in short the affair was amicably adjusted; an affair which happened so long ago, that it is only some old chroniclers like myself who have any recollection of it. "After Lord Tresyllian's return to England, he continued to fill several official situations as long as his friends, or his party rather, as those are called who contrive to hang together for some interest,--their own or their country's, it matters not--continued in office--and on their retiring, his Lordship retired also: I suppose to preserve his consistency, or because his talents were not needed in the new arrangement. Since then, gout and disappointed ambition have contributed to make him a recluse from the busy world of fashion; and in the magnificence of his princely fortune, and in the society of a chosen few, who have shared his fate, or depended on his interest in their political career, his existence is now passed, settling the balance of Europe in his closet, opposing his Majesty's ministers (as long as they shall not include his own party) in the senate, and on every other occasion, and haranguing every assembly of disappointed patriots in his own county, of which he is lord lieutenant.