His morals had always been loose, so loose indeed that the firmness with which in the late reign he had adhered to his religion had excited much surprise.

His glorious disgrace indeed seemed to have produced a salutary effect on his character.

In poverty and exile he rose from a voluptuary into a hero.

But, as soon as prosperity returned, the hero sank again into a voluptuary; and the lapse was deep and hopeless.

The nerves of his mind, which had been during a short time braced to a firm tone, were now so much relaxed by vice that he was utterly incapable of selfdenial or of strenuous exertion.