Francis Ardry-Certain sharpers-Brave and eloquent-Opposites-Flinging the bones-Strange places-Dog-fighting-Learning and letters-Batch of dogs-Redoubled application.
ONE evening I was visited by the tall young gentleman,Francis Ardry,whose acquaintance I had formed at the coffee-house.As it is necessary that the reader should know something more about this young man,who will frequently appear in the course of these pages,I will state in a few words who and what he was.He was born of an ancient Roman Catholic family in Ireland;his parents,whose only child he was,had long been dead.His father,who had survived his mother several years,had been a spendthrift,and at his death had left the family property considerably embarrassed.Happily,however,the son and the estate fell into the hands of careful guardians,near relations of the family,by whom the property was managed to the best advantage,and every means taken to educate the young man in a manner suitable to his expectations.At the age of sixteen he was taken from a celebrated school in England at which he had been placed,and sent to a small French university,in order that he might form an intimate and accurate acquaintance with the grand language of the continent.There he continued three years,at the end of which he went under the care of a French abbe to Germany and Italy.It was in this latter country that he first began to cause his guardians serious uneasiness.He was in the heyday of youth when he visited Italy,and he entered wildly into the various delights of that fascinating region,and,what was worse,falling into the hands of certain sharpers,not Italian,but English,he was fleeced of considerable sums of money.The abbe,who,it seems,was an excellent individual of the old French school,remonstrated with his pupil on his dissipation and extravagance;but,finding his remonstrances vain,very properly informed the guardians of the manner of life of his charge.They were not slow in commanding Francis Ardry home;and,as he was entirely in their power,he was forced to comply.He had been about three months in London when I met him in the coffee-room,and the two elderly gentlemen in his company were his guardians.At this time they were very solicitous that he should choose for himself a profession,offering to his choice either the army or law-he was calculated to shine in either of these professions-for,like many others of his countrymen,he was brave and eloquent;but he did not wish to shackle himself with a profession.As,however,his minority did not terminate till he was three-and-twenty,of which age he wanted nearly two years,during which he would be entirely dependent on his guardians,he deemed it expedient to conceal,to a certain degree,his sentiments,temporising with the old gentlemen,with whom,notwithstanding his many irregularities,he was a great favourite,and at whose death he expected to come into a yet greater property than that which he inherited from his parents.
Such is a brief account of Francis Ardry-of my friend Francis Ardry;for the acquaintance,commenced in the singular manner with which the reader is acquainted,speedily ripened into a friendship which endured through many long years of separation,and which still endures certainly on my part,and on his-if he lives;but it is many years since I have heard from Francis Ardry.
And yet many people would have thought it impossible for our friendship to have lasted a week-for in many respects no two people could be more dissimilar.He was an Irishman-I,an Englishman;-he,fiery,enthusiastic,and open-hearted;I,neither fiery,enthusiastic,nor open-hearted;-he,fond of pleasure and dissipation;I,of study and reflection.Yet it is of such dissimilar elements that the most lasting friendships are formed:
we do not like counterparts of ourselves.'Two great talkers will not travel far together,'is a Spanish saying;I will add,'Nor two silent people';we naturally love our opposites.
So Francis Ardry came to see me,and right glad I was to see him,for I had just flung my books and papers aside,and was wishing for a little social converse;and when we had conversed for some little time together,Francis Ardry proposed that we should go to the play to see Kean;so we went to the play,and saw-not Kean,who at that time was ashamed to show himself,but-a man who was not ashamed to show himself,and who people said was a much better man than Kean-as I have no doubt he was-though whether he was a better actor I cannot say,for I never saw Kean.