He was very angry, but I persisted;--I mentioned
the uniform support of our three votes in the House, touched modestly
on services abroad, though valuable only in his Royal Highness's having
been pleased kindly to accept them, and founded pretty strongly on his
own expressions of friendship and goodwill. He was embarrassed, but
obstinate. I hinted the policy of detaching, on all future occasions,
the heir of such a fortune as your uncle's from the machinations of the
disaffected. But I made no impression. I mentioned the obligation which
I lay under to Sir Everard, and to you personally, and claimed, as the
sole reward of my services, that he would be pleased to afford me the
means of evincing my gratitude. I perceived that he still meditated a
refusal, and, taking my commission from my pocket, I said (as a last
resource), that as his Royal Highness did not, under these pressing
circumstances, think me worthy of a favour which he had not scrupled
to grant to other gentlemen, whose services I could hardly judge more
important than my own, I must beg leave to deposit, with all humility,
my commission in his Royal Highness's hands, and to retire from the
service.
Pages:
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709