Dudley says he has seldom seen anything so masterly, though slight; and each had attached to it a short poetical description.

Is Saul, you will say, among the prophets?
Colonel Mannering write poetry! Why, surely this man must have taken all the pains to conceal his accomplishments that others do to display theirs.

How reserved and unsociable he appeared among us! how little disposed to enter into any conversation which could become generally interesting! And then his attachment to that unworthy Archer, so much below him in every respect; and all this because he was the brother of Viscount Archerfield, a poor Scottish peer! I think, if Archer had longer survived the wounds in the affair of Cuddyboram, he would have told something that might have thrown light upon the inconsistencies of this singular man's character.

He repeated to me more than once, "I have that to say which will alter your hard opinion of our late Colonel." But death pressed him too hard; and if he owed me any atonement, which some of his expressions seemed to imply, he died before it could be made.
'I propose to make a further excursion through this country while this fine frosty weather serves, and Dudley, almost as good a walker as myself, goes with me for some part of the way.

We part on the borders of Cumberland, when he must return to his lodgings in Marybone, up three pair of stairs, and labour at what he calls the commercial part of his profession.