It is impossible to close our account of this most singular personage, without giving another example of his waywardness and eccentricity. There was a wretched creature who molested the streets of London, barbarously insulting and wounding the females that he met, upon whom the appellation of Monster was therefore bestowed, as it were, by common consent. On his apprehension and trial, this gentleman thought proper to throw down the gauntlet as his advocate; not indeed his advocate with regard to his crimes, but a sort of legal advocate, pointing out the subterfuges of which he might avail himself. It was, however, like his insane duel, ineffectual in its consequences; it neither sheltered the defendant from universal indignation and contempt, nor tended to diminish the severity of his punishment. After various vicissitudes, this unaccountable man returned to Ireland, where he was involved in a great number of perplexities, animosities, and litigations, and died at no very advanced age. Durius in terris nihil est quod vivat amante Nec modo si sapias quod minus esse velis. CHAPTER LV. The case of entanglement, on the side of ELLA, alluded to in the former chapter, was this:—Her limited fortune, notwithstanding her high and proud connections, made it expedient for herself and sister, to live with an elderly lady, who had also other female boarders. An officer, who had been wounded in the service of his country in a distant climate, with a constitution apparently broken, made application to be received into the family, of which our heroine was a member. The circumstance excited great alarm, and occasioned much serious debate. At length, after many sage discussions, and beds of justice, it was resolved, _nemine contradicente_, that a wounded officer, somewhat advanced in life, and with an impaired constitution, was not an object to awaken the scruples, or alarm the fears of the sisterhood. Things, however, turned out quite contrary. “Love (as it is said) laughs at locksmiths;” and such a dart was shot from ELLA’S bright eyes through the thorax of the Major, where, by the way, there was a ball lodged already, which no medical skill could extract, that he surrendered at discretion. It is a little whimsical, that this catastrophe was maliciously predicted to the Lady by our Sexagenarian; but the prophecy was at first received with something like indignation. “Could it be supposed that a worn-out soldier, of no family, fortune, or pretensions, could excite any other emotion than pity?” Pity, however, it is well known, is next a kin to love, and so it proved in this instance. The final issue may be narrated in a few words. Application was made to ELLA’S great and noble friends, for their consent to this ill-suited union, to which the Horatian adage might strictly be applied; most certainly might they be termed “_impares formas atque animos_,” and the _jugum_, had it been worn, would have been truly _aheneum_.