Gray. That was now
about five years since, and it was within six months that he had made
his appearance in Middlemas, a very different sort of personage from
that which he seemed at his departure.
He was now called Captain; his dress was regimental, and his language
martial. He appeared to have plenty of cash, for he not only, to the
great surprise of the parties, paid certain old debts, which he had left
unsettled behind him, and that notwithstanding his having, as his old
practice told. him, a good defence of prescription, but even sent the
minister a guinea, to the assistance of the parish poor. These acts of
justice and benevolence were bruited abroad greatly to the honour of
one, who, so long absent, had neither forgotten his just debts, nor
hardened his heart against the cries of the needy. His merits were
thought the higher, when it was understood he had served the Honourable
East India Company--that wonderful company of merchants, who may indeed,
with the strictest propriety, be termed princes. It was about the middle
of the eighteenth century, and the directors in Leadenhall Street were
silently laying the foundation of that immense empire, which afterwards
rose like an exhalation, and now astonishes Europe, as well as Asia,
with its formidable extent, and stupendous strength. Britain had now
begun to lend a wondering ear to the account of battles fought, and
cities won, in the East; and was surprised by the return of individuals
who had left their native country as adventurers, but now reappeared
there surrounded by Oriental wealth and Oriental luxury, which dimmed
even the splendour of the most wealthy of the British nobility.
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