Dick. Seen! I have seen the Land of Promise.
Mil. The Land of Promise! What dost thou mean?
Dick. The Court, Father.
Mil. Thou wilt never leave joking.
Dick. To be serious then, I have seen the Disappointment of all my Hopes and Expectations; and that's more than one would wish to see.
Mil. What, would the great Man thou wast recommended to, do nothing at all for thee at last?
Dick. Why, yes; he would promise me to the last.
Mil. Zoons! do the Courtiers think their Dependants can eat Promises!
Dick. No, no, they never trouble their Heads to think, whether we eat at all or not. I have now dangled after his Lordship several Years, tantaliz'd with Hopes and Expectations; this Year promised one Place, the next another, and the third, in sure and certain Hope of——a Disappointment. One falls, and it was promis'd before; another, and I am just Half an Hour too late; a third, and it stops the Mouth of a Creditor; a fourth, and it pays the Hire of a Flatterer; a fifth, and it bribes a Vote; and the sixth, I am promis'd still. But having thus slept away some Years, I awoke from my Dream: My Lord, I found, was so far from having it in his Power to get a Place for me, that he had been all this while seeking after one for himself.
Mil. Poor Dick! And is plain Honesty then a Recommendation to no Place at Court?