Only, unfortunately for him, when the money was gone, and he would, given the opportunity, perhaps have returned, like that illustrious exemplar, from his husks and his harlots, to partake of the fatted calf, there was no father, no home, and no fatted calf to which he might return.
But he had still some relatives left in Monaghan, and he thought he might be received by them. In this he was altogether mistaken when he tried to put it to the proof, and was reduced almost to the point of starvation there, when he attracted the attention of a gentleman, who offered him a footman's place in his service. He did not keep this situation long. He was too impudent to his master, and too patronising towards the other servants. He was discharged, and for a time subsisted upon a scanty allowance from his brother.
In this extremity he found a gentleman of Cork, a "Colonel F——n," who was confiding enough to engage him as butler. But he apparently did not make a good butler; and was, moreover, discovered making away with his master's property, and discharged. We next find him in London, thinking of joining the Irish Brigade in the French service; but abandoning the idea from conscientious scruples against being employed in Popish surroundings. Maclaine had a very tender conscience and a timid nature, and what with his religious scruples and the fear of being shot (to which he does not allude, but which was very vivid to him), he had to abandon the notion of wearing a fine uniform, which we may suspect had originally given him the impulse to a military life.
JAMES MACLAINE.
Maclaine did not at this period keep very reputable society; but was in 1746 again occupying a position with the forgiving "Colonel F——n." The Colonel seems to have, on this second occasion, found him an undesirable servant; whereupon, "being prepossessed with the perfections of his person," he proposed to enlist in Lord Albemarle's troop of horseguards. The Colonel, as an old soldier, thought this, no doubt, the best thing, and, with an advance of ten pounds, bade him go where glory waited him.
Maclaine accordingly enlisted. He had visions of being seated on a prancing steed—"steed" being the superlative of "horse"—and, dressed in something with plenty of blue or scarlet and gold in it, taking part in ceremonial processions and escorts. Unhappily, soon after he had enlisted, he heard that the troop was to proceed at once to Flanders on active service, and hurriedly got, somehow, out of the dangerous position.
He then made some attempt to settle down and live respectably, for he married the daughter of a Mr. Maclagen, a horse-dealer in the Oxford Road—the Oxford Street of to-day. His wife brought a small dowry of £500, and with this they set up business in the grocery and chandlery way in Welbeck Street. Unhappily for any views he may have entertained of a settled life as a tradesman, his wife died in 1748. It appeared then that the business had not prospered, or that their style of living had been beyond their means, for the stock and furniture were then found to be worth only £85.
Maclaine's first idea after this domestic catastrophe was one very prevalent at that time: the notion of posing as a gentleman of fortune and of fashion, with the object of ensnaring the affections of some susceptible young lady of means and marrying her for her money. He accordingly realised all his effects, and, placing his two infant daughters in the care of his mother-in-law, burst upon the town as one of the elegants of the day.