I had my favorite _danseuses_ and _cantatrices_, and so bullied my servants, both white and black, that my uncle had enough to do to bribe them into taking it quietly.

My friends had torn me from my home without consulting my feelings, and I did not care a straw for theirs.

In short, I was the most renowned of the young scamps who pique themselves upon their devilry on the other side the water.

It was on one of my birth-days that, returning home from a certain _petit souper_, the thought suddenly struck me that this career must come to an end, or it would end me.

So I went to the harbor instead of to my uncle's house, and having, on my way, bought a coarse sailor's dress and put it on, I hired myself to an English captain.