This information he received as an instance of the
singular esteem of his noble patron; and the papers being immediately
drawn and executed, the money was deposited in the hands of the
mortgager, who, in the hearing of the lender, laid strong injunctions
on his steward to pay the interest punctually at quarter-day.
The best part of our hero's fortune being thus happily deposited,
and the agent gratified with a present of fifty pieces, he began
to put his retrenching scheme in execution; all his servants, Pipes
excepted, were discharged, his chariot and running horses disposed
of, his housekeeping broken up, and his furniture sold by auction:
nay, the heat of his disposition was as remarkable in this as any
other transaction in his life; for every step of his saving project
was taken with such eagerness, and even precipitation, that most of
his companions thought he was either ruined or mad. But he answered
all their expostulations with a string of prudent apophthegms, such
as, "The shortest follies are the best"; "Better to retrench upon
conviction than compulsion"; and divers other wise maxims, seemingly
the result of experience and philosophic reflection.
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