CHAPTER V.

The commencement of difficulties-Letter to his banker at Calais-Extract from another to that gentleman-Applications to Mr. Armstrong for assistance-Proceedings of Monsieur Isidore-His valet retires from his service -Mademoiselle Aimable, the daughter of his landlady-Teaches her English-Correspondence with her.

THOUGH Brummell met with the kindest reception at Caen, both from the French and English, and soon formed agreeable intimacies with a few of the best families of either nation, yet malgré the dinners of Mr. Burton and Mr. Villiers, his gay demeanour, his sallies, and apparent insouciance, he must have been at times exceedingly harassed and annoyed; for he had scarcely been six months in the town before he was up to his wig in difficulties. His eighty pounds a year, all that he was receiving out of his salary of four hundred, was insufficient for rent and washing: the latter amounted to eight hundred francs, rather more than a third of it; and though this was not extraordinary for a man who had lived through life as he had, and invariably draped his elegant form in three shirts and three neck-cloths per diem, such habits were annihilation

to such an income. Lest any of my readers should think me guilty of exaggeration with respect to this item of Brummell's weekly expenditure, I will here insert what Prince Puckler, in one of his letters to Julia, calls the weekly statement made by the fashionable blanchisseuse that he employed when in London, who he asserts was the only person that could make cravats of the right stiffness, or fold the breasts of shirts with plaits of the right size. "An élégant then requires per week twenty shirts, twenty-four pocket-handkerchiefs, nine or ten pair of summer trowsers, thirty neck-handkerchiefs, (unless he wears black ones,) a dozen waistcoats, and stockings à discretion." By-the-bye I should mention that Brummell told me that he invariably went home to change his cravat after the opera, previously to attending his other engagements, either ball or supper. But independently of his large washing bills, he had not yet learned to dress himself without the assistance of a valet; and he also gave a few dinner parties, so that his annual expenses must have amounted to more than eight times his income. But he was Consul, he was Beau Brummell, and credit was easily obtained. This he took advantage of immediately after his arrival, and also again applied for assistance to Mr. Leveux.

I have given one of his letters to this gentleman a place here only with the view of showing a specimen of his knowledge of French. The reader will perhaps criticise it in an indulgent spirit, when he recollects (for the anecdote has been already given) that it is written by one who, in his hopeless endeavours to learn the language, had been stopped "like Buonaparte by the elements."*

MON CHER MONSIEUR,

Caen, le 14 Avril, 1831.

Je ne croyais guères il y a six mois me trouver encore exposé à l'extrémité de recourir à votre bonté. J'ai trop calculé, comme vous le savez, sur les promesses de mes amis; ils n'ont rien fait pour moi, et il sera peut-être encore un autre pénible siècle, de quatre ou cinq mois, avant qu'il

* Crush'd was Napoleon by the northern Thor,
Who knock'd his army down with icy hammer,

Stopp'd by the elements, like a whaler, or

A blundering novice in his new French grammar."

ВЕРРО.

Lord Byron says in his diary, "I have put this pun into Beppo, which is a fair exchange and no robbery;' for Scrope made his fortune at several dinners (as he owned himself) by repeating occasionally as his own some of the buffooneries with which I had encountered him in the morning."

ne leur plaise à me tirer de la position actuelle dont j'ai dernièrement lutté contre les désavantages. Cette position est enfin devenue plus périlleuse, je ne me soucie pas de la privation des luxes ni des agrémens de la vie, il y a longtems qu'il m'a fallu savoir m'en passer: mais il y va à l'instant de mon honneur, de ma réputation, et de tous mes intérêts présens et à l'avenir, puisque j'ai lieu de craindre que le manque total de moyens de pourvoir même aux dépenses officielles qu'imposent chaque jour les obligations de mon consulat, et que l'éclat de l'ignominie qui m'envisage d'être continuellement poursuivi pour des petites dettes, que j'ai nécessairement contractées dans cette ville de Caen, ne soient bientôt cause de la perte de ma place.

Je vous supplie donc de prendre en considération les divers embarras de mon état pour vos propres intérêts, que je vous jure me sont plus sacrés que les miens; je vous supplie d'y réfléchir et de tâcher en subvenir à l'extrême besoin. Ne consultez que ces sentimens de libéralité et amitié que vous m'avez témoigné pendant quinze ans, et que je n'abuserai jamais. Ne prêtez pas l'oreille aux indignes conseils de ceux (je les connais sans les nommer) qui pour satisfaire leurs injustes et

misérables demandes contre moi, cherchent à me

nuire dans votre estime.

Avec la plus parfaite considération,

Je suis, mon cher Monsieur,

Votre très-fidèle et obéissant serviteur,

A Monsieur Jacques Leveux,
Banquier, Calais.

GEORGE BRUMMELL.

This heroic indifference to privations he had never yet submitted to, and his alarm for his honour and reputation are somewhat entertaining. The tact also is excellent, with which he presents Mr. Leveux's interests to his consideration, by way of an argument for advancing his own; it was, however, an unsuccessful application, as the following extract from another letter to the same gentleman, written about a month after, will prove : "Je me suis flatté, mon cher Monsieur, pendant un mois, d'avoir de vos nouvelles. Poussé à la dernière extrémité, et pour me soustraire aux poursuites des gens de cette ville, pour sauver enfin l'habit à mon dos, qui est véritablement à peu près, tout ce qui me reste," &c., &c. This second letter had the desired effect, and his bill was cashed, but the relief was but temporary, and he now began to feel the distress which had hitherto