Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/139

Rh him? his anſwer was, in his uſual facetious manner, that it was not in his Majeſty’s power to ſerve him: but coming to a ſerious explanation of his meaning, he told the lord treaſurer, that he well knew the nature of courts, and that whoever is diſtinguiſhed by a Prince’s favour, is certainly expected to vote in his intereſt. The lord Danby told him, that his Majeſty had only a juſt ſenſe of his merits, in regard to which alone, he deſired to know whether there was any place at court he could be pleaſed with. Theſe offers, though urged with the greateſt earneſtneſs, had no effect upon him; he told the lord treaſurer, that he could not accept it with honour, for he muſt either be ungrateful to the King by voting againſt him, or betray his country by giving his voice againſt its intereſt, at leaſt what he reckoned ſo. The only favour therefore which he begged of his Majeſty, was, that he would eſteem him as dutiful a ſubject as any he had, and more in his proper intereſt in rejecting his offers, than if he had embraced them. The lord Danby finding no arguments would prevail, told him, the King had ordered a thouſand pounds for him, which he hoped he would accept, ’till he could think what farther to aſk of his Majeſty. This laſt temptation was reſiſted with the ſame ſtedfaſtneſs of mind as the firſt.

The reader muſt have already taken notice that Mr. Marvel’s chief ſupport was the penſion allowed him by his conſtituents, that his lodgings were mean, and conſequentiy his circumſtances at this time could not be affluent. His reſiſting theſe temptations therefore in ſuch a ſituation, was perhaps one of the moſt heroic inſtances of patriotiſm the Annals of England can furniſh. But his conduct will be ſtill heightened into a more amiable light, when it is related, that as ſoon as the lord treaſurer had taken his leave, he was