pleasures of the capital recommenced, and the great social wheel, as it again rolled forward, seemed to obliterate in its progress every trace of the past, every print that had been left by the foot of Death!

Jocelyn made it his first care, after his arrival in London, to call upon Alderman Staunton, for the purpose of renewing a more formal expression of his gratitude to Constantia, as well as of repaying the money she had lent him; for his proud spirit was impatient of pecuniary obligation, and the Queen's continued bounty now enabled him to cancel his debt without inconvenience. That, which he still owed to Constantia for his recovery, was of course beyond all power of acquittance; though had his heart been at his own disposal, he would gladly have dedicated to her service the life she had preserved. Being informed that she had left the city some days before, on a visit to Mr. Ashmole, at South Lambeth, he proceeded to Turret House, where he was courteously received by that gentleman, to whom he explained the pur*port of his visit. Instead, however, of being enabled to gain an interview with Constantia, he received from her a cold message, intimating that she had never doubted his being the most punctual of all debtors, and that as there were now no further accounts to settle between them, she would dispense with his future visits. Having satisfied his conscience, as far as he was enabled to do so,

and feeling somewhat piqued at this repulsive communication, which he conceived to be calculated to lower him with Mr. Ashmole, he abruptly quitted the house, and returned to his own apartments at Whitehall, fully determined to obey the unceremonious notice he had received, and to drop an acquaintance, the continuance of which, by again bringing him in communication with Julia, might only serve to foster a passion which every prudential consideration most imperatively called upon him to forget.

The serious impressions which his escape from the plague had awakened, were not of any long continuance. If the Queen, with her deeperrooted religious principles, and more habitual rigour of morality, had been obliged to adapt herself to the licentiousness with which she was surrounded, it was not likely that a youth of ardent passions would be enabled to resist the whirl of Court dissipation, that brought every thing within its vortex. It was as difficult to avoid the contagion of the moral as of the physical plague; and Jocelyn, who had been assailed by the one, was now as deeply tainted by the other infection,-of which he was indeed peculiarly susceptible from the state of his feelings. Spite of all his worldly wisdom and cold prudence, his bosom retained enough of its attachment to Julia to render him not only indifferent to every other beauty, but dissatisfied with himself, and out of humour with the world;

a predicament in which he flew to the common but vain expedient of endeavouring to derive from the senses that pleasure which was denied to the heart, by making libertinism a substitute for love. So far as licentious companions could advance this hopeful project, he had every assistance that could be desired; for he was now on intimate terms with the Duke of Buckingham; his former friendship with Rochester and the Duke of Monmouth was cemented by community of dissipation; and Sedley, Etherege, and Killigrew were received into the number of his intimates.

Under such auspices he plunged into all the dissolute courses of the time, with the ignorance as well as with the zeal of a novice. He gave suppers, and lived upon a scale of expenditure that speedily involved him in embarrassment; he lounged about Covent Garden; he haunted the taverns and the play-houses; he took one of the actresses of the Duke's theatre under his special protection, and furnished apartments for her, opposite to those of Moll Davies, the King's mistress, in Suffolk Street. But this liaison was speedily dissolved. His friend, Lord Rochester, introduced himself into the house, under the disguise of the lady's cousin, a country bumpkin from Yorkshire, which he performed so admirably, that although he dined with Jocelyn and sang several clownish songs, he remained undiscovered, and was allowed to accompany his pretended relation to the Mul

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berry Garden, whence, instead of restoring her to Suffolk-street, he carried her off in triumph to his own house at Westminster. Not that he had any attachment to the woman, whom he had presently spurned away from him again; but that he enjoyed the joke, was proud of his powers of mimicry, and delighted in an opportunity of outwitting and laughing at a friend. In further proof that he was a greenhorn in the practices of a modish life, Jocelyn was weak enough to take his friend's behaviour in dudgeon, and actually to call upon him for satisfaction, an instance of simplicity at which his lordship laughed most heartily. "My dear Faunus," he exclaimed, "surely it were better to sing Pepys's song of Beauty, retire and give the Fair Inconstant to the winds, than to be tragical and heroical about a trull. Because you have lost your wench, you need not lose your temper, still less your friend, least of all your own life. Fight for a petticoat! Fie, fie! you should know better. If the King cannot keep his mistresses to himself, why should the Queen's private secretary expect to do so? As for me, I am no fighter. I am a coward upon principle, as I told you when I ran away with my wife. There is nothing so absurdly over-rated as personal courage, than which I positively know not a more common-place and vulgar quality. Fools and barbarians invariably possess it in exact proportion to their ignorance and ferocity, and, after all, they are eclipsed by

the brutes, because they are still more irrational, Psha!-away with grim looks, my man of the woods, and let us be merry. How say you? shall we scour the quarters, and call upon Peg Hughes, Nell Gwyn, and Mrs. Knight,-visit the Italian Puppet, or Polichinello in Moorfields,-hie to St. James's Park to see the pelican toss up the flatfish and catch them,-take wine at the Rhenish, tipple sack at the Heaven Tavern,-or burnt brandy at the Devil,-punch at the St. John's Head, or buttered ale at Wood's in the Pell-mell. -looking in at either of the theatres,-play a game at tennis, cards, or dice,-find our way to Clerkenwell, and talk philosophy with the crazy Duchess of Newcastle, or walk to Barn-elms and discuss poetry and botany with Abraham Cowley?"

Here was a copious choice of recreations; but Jocelyn, not being in a mood to partake of any, simply declared, that he should spend the morning at home, and that he was so far convinced, by his lordship's raillery, as to say, that he forgave him, if he could forgive himself.

"Then never was any reconciliation more complete," cried Rochester; "for I not only forgive myself, but applaud myself to the very skies. Fare the well, my Faunus! Since thou wilt not join my rambles, I will return to end them here;