To omit other stories, some of which may be perhaps the growth of superstition, we proceed to the birth of our hero, who made his first appearance on this great theatre, the very day when the plague first broke out in 1665. Some say his mother was delivered of him in an house of an orbicular or round form in Covent-Garden; but of this we are not certain. He was some years afterwards baptized by the famous Mr. Titus Oates.

Nothing very remarkable passed in his years of infancy, save, that as the letters Th are the most difficult of pronunciation, and the last which a child attains to the utterance of, so they were the first that came with any readiness from young master Wild. Nor must we omit the early indications which he gave of the sweetness of his temper; for though he was by no means to be terrified into compliance, yet might he by a sugarplum be brought to your purpose: : indeed, to say the truth, he was to be bribed to any thing, which made many say, he was certainly born to be a Great Man.

He was scarce settled at school before he gave marks of his lofty and aspiring temper; and was regarded by all his schoolfellows with that deference which men generally pay to those superior geniuses who will exact it of them. If an orchard was to be robbed, Wild was consulted, and though he was himself seldom concerned in the execution of the design, yet was he always concerter of it, and treasurer of the booty; some little part of which he would now and then, with wonderful generosity, bestow on those who took it. He was generally very secret on these ocsions; but if any offered to plunder of his own head, without acquainting master Wild, and making a deposit of the booty, he was sure to have an information against him lodged with the schoolmaster, and to be severely punished for his pains.

He discovered so little attention to school-learning, that his master, who was a very wise and worthy man, soon gave over all care and trouble on that account, and acquainting his parents that their son proceeded extremely

well in his studies, he permitted his pepil to follow his own inclinations; perceiving they led him to nobler pursuits than the sciences; which are generally acknowledged to be a very unprofitable study, and indeed greatly to hinder the advancement of men in the world; but though master Wild was not esteemed the readiest at making his exercise, he was universally allowed to be the most dexterous at stealing it of all his schoolfellows: being never detected in such furtive compositions, nor indeed in any other exercitations of his great talents, which all inclined, the same way, but once when he had laid violent hands on a book called Gradus ad Parnassum, i. e. A step towards Parnassus; on which account his master, who was a man of most wonderful wit and sagacity, is said to have told him, he wished it might not prove in the event Gradus ad Patibulum, i. e. A step towards the gallows.

But though he would not give himself the pains requisite to acquire a competent sufficiency in the learned languages, yet did he readily listen with attention to others, especially when they translated the classical authors to him; nor was he in the least backward, at all such times, to express his approbation. He was wonderfully pleased with that passage in the eleventh Iliad, where Achilles is said to have bound two sons of Priam upon a mountain, and afterwards to have released them for a sum of money. This was, he said, alone sufficient to refute those who affected a contempt for the wisdom of the ancients, and an undeniable testimony of the great antiquity of Priggism.* He was ravished with the account which Nestor gives in the same book, of the rich booty which he bore off, (i. e. stole,) from the Eleans. He was desirous of having this often repeated to him, and at the end of every repetition, he constantly fetched a deep sigh, and said, It was a glorious booty.

When the story of Cacus, was read to him out of the eighth Eneid, he generously pitied the unhappy fate of that great man, to whom he thought Hercules much too severe; * This word, in the cant language, signifies thievery

one of his schoolfellows commending the dexterity of drawing the oxen backward by their tails into his den, he smiled, and with some disdain, said, he could have taught him a better way.

He was a passionate admirer of heroes, particularly of Alexander the Great, between whom and the late king of Sweden, he would frequently draw parallels. He was much delighted with the accounts of the Czar's retreat from the latter, who carried off the inhabitants of great cities to people his own country. This, he said, was not once thought of by Alexander; but added perhaps he did not want them.

Happy had it been for him, if he had confined himself to this sphere; but his chief, if not only blemish was, that he would sometimes, from an humility in his nature too pernicious to true greatness, condescend to an intimacy, with inferior things and persons. Thus the Spanish rogue was his favourite book, and the cheats of Scapin his favourite play.

The young gentleman being now at the age of seventeen, his father, from a foolish prejudice to our universities, and out of a false, as well as excessive regard to his morals, brought his son to town, where he resided with him till he was of an age to travel. Whilst he was here, all imaginable care was taken of his instruction, his father. endeavouring his utmost to inculcate principles of honour and gentility into his son..

CHAPTER IV.

Mr. Wild's first entrance into the world. His acquain tance with. Count La Ruse.

AN accident happened soon after his arrival in town, which almost saved the father his whole labour on this head, and provided master Wild a better tutor than any after-care or expense could have furnished him with. The old gentleman, it seems, was a FOLLOWER of the fortunes of Mr. Snap, son of Mr. Geoffry Snap, whom we have before mentioned to have enjoyed a reputable office under the sheriff

of London and Middlesex, and the daughter of which Geoffry had intermarried with the Wilds. Mr. Snap the younger, being thereto well warranted, had laid violent hands on, or, as the vulgar express it, arrested one Count La Ruse, a man of considerable figure in those days, and confined him to his own house, till he could find two seconds who would in a formal manner give their words that the Count should, to a certain day and place appointed, answer all that one Thomas Thimble a tailor had to say to him; which Thomas Thimble, it seems, alleged that the Count had, according to the law of the realm, made over his body to him as a security for some suits of clothes to him delivered by the said Thomas Thimble. Now, as the Count, though perfectly a man of honour, could not immediately find these seconds, he was obliged for some time to reside at Mr. Snap's house: for it seems the law of the land is, that whoever owes another 101. or indeed 21. may be, on the oath of that person, immediaitely taken up and carried away from his own house and family, and kept abroad till he is made to owe 50l. whether he will or no; for which he is perhaps, afterwards obliged to lie in jail; and all these without any trial had, or any other evidence of the debt than the abovesaid oath, which if untrue as it often happens, you have no remedy against the perjurer; he was, forsooth, mistaken.

But though Mr. Snap would not, (as perhaps by the nice rules of honour he was obliged,) discharge the Count on his parole; yet did he not, (as by the strict rules of law he was enabled,) confine him to his chamber. The Count had his liberty of the whole house, and Mr. Snap using only the precaution of keeping his doors well locked and barred, took his prisoner's word that he would not go forth.

Mr. Snap had by his second lady two daughters, who were now in the bloom of their youth and beauty. Theseyoung ladies, like damsels in romance, compassionated the captive Count, and endeavoured by all means to make his confinement less irksome to him; which, though they were both very beautiful, they could not attain by any

other way so effectually, as by engaging with him at cards, in which contentions, as will appear hereafter, the Count was greatly skilful.

As whist and swabbers was the game then in the chief vogue, they were obliged to look for a fourth person, in order to make up their parties. Mr. Suap himself would sometimes relax his mind, from the violent fatigues of his employment, by these recreations; and sometimes a neighbouring gentleman, or lady, came in to their assistance: but the most frequent guest was young master Wild, who had been educated from his infancy with the Miss Snaps, and was, by all the neighbours, allotted for the husband of Miss Tishy, or Letitia, the younger of the two; for though, being his cousin-german, she was perhaps, in the eye of a strict conscience, somewhat too nearly related to him; yet the old people on both sides, though suffi ciently scrupulous in nice matters, agreed to overlook this objection.

Men of great genius as easily discover one another, as free-masons can. It was therefore no wonder that the Count soon conceived an inclination to an intimacy with our young hero, whose vast abilities could not be concealed from one of the Count's discernment: for though this latter was so expert at his cards, that he was proverbially said to play the whole game, he was no match for master Wild, who, inexperienced as he was, notwithstanding all the art, the dexterity, and often the fortune of his adversary, never failed to send him away from the table with less in his pocket than he brought to it, for indeed Langfanger himself could not have extracted a purse with more ingenuity than our young hero.

His hands made frequent visits to the Count's pocket, before the latter had entertained any suspicion of him, imputing the several losses he sustained, rather to the innocent and sprightly frolic of Miss Doshy, or Theodosia,. with which, as she indulged him with little innocent freedoms about her person in return, he thought himself oblig ed to be contented; but one night, when Wild imagined