He now daily proved that he was well entitled to this unenviable reputation.

Indeed in him mendacity was almost a disease.

He would, after giving orders for the dismission of English officers, take them into his closet, assure them of his confidence and friendship, and implore heaven to confound him, sink him, blast him, if he did not take good care of their interests.

Sometimes those to whom he had thus perjured himself learned, before the day closed, that he had cashiered them.

[184] On his arrival, though he swore savagely at the Act of Settlement, and called the English interest a foul thing, a roguish thing, and a damned thing, he yet intended to be convinced that the distribution of property could not, after the lapse of so many years, be altered.