84 DERMODY. tresses, he appealed once more to the liberality of Mr. Grattan,—a man who never closed his doors against the unfortunate. He received him with kindness, and treated him with respect, and at his departure, presented him with five guineas; this sum Dermody got rid of before he reached home; got drunk, and created a disturb ance at Ranelagh, a village three miles from Dublin, where he was taken into custody, and corded down upon an empty bed. After this event he met with another patron, in the person of Mr. William Smith; and while he was labouring to advance his fortune, Dermody (as usual) abandoned himself to the most depraved society, whose pursuits were as disreputable as they were perni cious; lost to the esteem of the world, and deserted even by many of his low associates, he wandered about per fectly destitute, and without any other means of subsist cnce, than the donations which his wretched appearance extorted from the humanity of those to whom he presented petitions. In this state of misery and penury, he, with one Stewart, formed a design of visiting London, and met accordingly at a mean public house in Great George-street, which was the rendezvous of a recruiting party, who fixed on Dermody for their victim. He was easily seduced from propriety; he mixed in their low excesses; became speedily intoxicated, and was the same night carried down the River, and safely lodged in a tender which lay moored in the Bay. When he recovered his senses, his apathy of heart (of which he had a large stock) did not desert him, and he became familiarized to his situation, from which he was released by a Mr. Samuel White; he, however, soon after, got into a similar predicament, from which he was extricated by his active friend Mr. Emerson. A short time after this period, after idling away some weeks in a state of ruinous dissipation, he entered as a private in the 108th regiment, commanded by the Earl of Granard; and behaving with some decency, under the wholesome check of military discipline, he was progressively advanced to -the ranks of corporal and sergeant; and on the 17th of -
