times other men's thoughts mixed with his compofures; but that flowed rather from the impreffions they made on him when he read them, by which they came to return on him as his own thoughts, than that he fervilely copied from any; for few men had a bolder flight of fancy, more fteadily governed by judgement, than he had. No wonder a young man fo made and fo improved was very acceptable in

a court.

Soon after his coming thither, he laid hold on the firft occafion that offered to fhew his readiness to hazard his life in the defence and service of his country. In winter, 1665, he went with the earl of Sandwich to fea, when he was fent to lie for a Dutch Eaft-India fleet; and was in the Revenge, commanded by fir Thomas Tiddiman, when the attack was made on the port of Bergen in Norway, the Dutch fhips having got into that port. It was as desperate an attempt as ever was made; during the whole action, the earl of Rochester fhewed as brave and as refolute a courage as was poffible: a person of honour told me he heard the lord Clifford, who was in the fame ship, often magnify his courage at that time very highly. Nor did the rigours of the season, the hardnefs of the voyage, and the extreme danger he had been in, deter him from running the like on the very

next occafion; for the fummer following he went to fea again, without communicating his defign to his nearest relations. He went on-board the fhip commanded by fir Edward Spragge, the day before the great fea-fight of that year. Almoft all the volunteers that were in the fame fhip were killed. Mr. Middleton (brother to fir Hugh Middleton) was shot in the arm. During the action, fir Edward Spragge, not being fatisfied with the behaviour of one of his captains, could not eafily find a person that would cheerfully venture through fo much danger to carry his commands to that captain. This lord offered himfelf to the fervice; and went in a little boat, through all the shot, and delivered his message, and returned back to fir Edward; which was much commended by all that faw it. He thought it necessary to begin his life with thefe demonftrations of courage, in an element and way of fighting which is acknowledged to be the greateft trial of clear and undaunted

valour.

He had fo entirely laid down the intemperance that was growing on him before his travels, that at his return he hated nothing more. But, falling into company that loved thefe exceffes, he was, though not without difficulty, and by many fteps, brought back to it again. And the natural heat of his fancy,

being inflamed by wine, made him fo extravagantly pleasant, that many, to be more diverted by that humour, ftudied to engage him deeper and deeper in intemperance; which at length did so entirely subdue him, that, as he told me, for five years together he was continually drunk; not all the while under the vifible effects of it, but his blood was fo inflamed, that he was not, in all that time, cool enough to be perfectly mafter of himself. This led him to say and do many wild and unaccountable things: by this, he faid, he had broken the firm conftitution of his health, that seemed fo ftrong that nothing was too hard for it; and he had suffered fo much in his reputation, that he almost despaired to recover it. There were two principles in his natural temper that, being heightened by that heat, carried him to great exceffes; a violent love of pleasure, and a difpofition to extravagant mirth. The one involved him in great fenfuality; the other led him to many odd adventures and frolics, in which he was oft in hazard of his life : the one being the fame irregular appetite in his mind that the other was in his body, which led him to think nothing diverting that was not extravagant. And though, in cold blood, he was a generous and good-natured man, yet he would go far, in his heats, after any thing that might turn to a jeft or matter of diverfion.

B 4

diverfion. He faid to me, he never improved his intereft at court to do a premeditate mischief to other perfons. Yet he laid out his wit very freely in libels and fatires, in which he had a peculiar talent of mixing his wit with his malice, and fitting both with fuch apt words, that men were tempted to be pleafed with them from thence his compofures came to be eafily known, for few had such a way of tempering thefe together as he had; fo that, when any thing extraordinary that way came out, as a child is fathered fometimes by its refemblance, fo it was laid at his door as its parent and author.

These exercises in the course of his life were not always equally pleasant to him; he had often fad intervals and fevere reflections on them: and, though then he had not these awakened in him by any deep principle of religion, yet the horror that nature raised in him, especially in fome fickneffes, made him too eafy to receive fome ill principles which others endeavoured to poffefs him with; so that he was too foon brought to fet himself to fecure and fortify his mind against that, by difpoffeffing it all he could of the belief or apprehenfions of religion. The licentioufness of his temper, with the brifknefs of his wit, difpofed him to love the converfation of those who divided their time between lewd actions and irregular mirth.

And

And fo he came to bend his wit, and direct his ftudies and endeavours, to fupport and ftrengthen these ill principles in himself and others.

An accident fell out after this which confirmed him more in these courfes. When he went to fea in the year 1665, there happened to be, in the same ship with him, Mr. Montague and another gentleman of quality. These two, the former especially, seemed perfuaded that they should never return into England: Mr. Montague faid he was fure of it; the other was not so pofitive. The earl of Rochefter and the laft of thefe entered into a formal engagement, not without ceremonies of religion, that, ifeither of them died, he fhould appear, and give the other notice of the future ftate, if there was any; but Mr. Montague would not enter into the bond. When the day came that they thought to have taken the Dutch fleet in the port of Bergen, Mr. Montague, though he had such a strong presage in his mind of his approaching death, yet he generously staid all the while in the place of greatest danger. The other gentleman fignalized his courage in a moft undaunted manner till the end of the action, when he fell on a fudden into fuch a trembling that he could scarce stand; and, Mr. Montague going to him to hold him up, as they were in each others arms, a cannon

ball