For Sheridan and Peake; whilst I alone,
With bended quill and book full of subscribers,
Hover’d about the ruins, and well mark’d
The road they went;—then hasted to some friend,
Whom with a list of fifty wealthy men
I met advancing. Then the chair I took
And soon o’erturned the debt-encumbered foe;
We talked and argued: ere a pound was paid,
A promise from my tongue upset the chief,
Who had that day the box which now I have!