His only reply was that for one so poor I was strangely fastidious.

For weeks I hung about the court--I and other poor cavaliers like myself, watching the royal brothers squandering upon their gaming and their harlots sums which would have restored us to our patrimonies.

I have seen Charles put upon one turn of a card as much as would have satisfied the most exacting of us.

In the parks of St.James, or in the Gallery at Whitehall, I still endeavoured to keep myself before his eyes, in the hope that some provision would be made for me.

At last I received a second message from him.