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BEAU WILSON.

Beau Wilson's mysterious rise from poverty to affluence.-Serves a campaign in Flanders.—Is broken for cowardice, and returns to England with forty shillings in his pocket.-His extraordinary show of wealth immediately after his return.—Various conjectures on the subject.-Extract from Madam Dunois' Memoirs. Her belief that Wilson owed his good fortune to the favour of the Duchess of Cleveland.-Wilson engaged in a duel with Law, and killed.-Extract from Evelyn's Diary. -Law tried and condemned.-His escape from prison.-His death at Venice in 1729.

THE preceding memoir of Beau Fielding throws so curious a light on the manners and customs of the last century, that we are tempted to introduce the portrait of another individual of the same stamp, who, though he figured a few years previously to his brother in dissipation, yet resembles him not a little in the ephemeral splendour of his existence, and the precarious sources from which his magnificence was derived.

The person known as Beau Wilson, whose mysterious rise from extreme poverty to the greatest affluence, afforded our ancestors so wide a field for curiosity and conjecture,-was a younger brother, for whom his friends had purchased a commission in the army. He served a campaign with the army in Flanders, but

having been early broken for cowardice,-as some have asserted, set out on his return to England with the small sum of forty shillings, which some charitable friend had lent him to pay the expenses of his passage.

This obscure, and apparently degraded, individual, had hardly made his appearance in the metropolis more than a few weeks, when, according to a contemporary, "he appeared the brightest star in the hemisphere; his coaches, saddle, hunting, race-horses, equipage, dress, and table, being the admiration of the world." Curiosity was eagerly at work to discover the secret source of this magnificence. It was questioned whether such extraordinary wealth could be derived from any of the fair sex, for there were few able to sustain him in such lavish expenditure. The manner in which he spent each day could always be accounted for, and, even when intoxicated, he was invariably on his guard against impertinent inquiries. Some believed that he had discovered the philosopher's stone; others affirmed that he had robbed a mail from Holland of a large quantity of rough diamonds; while another report was prevalent, that he was supported by the Jews, though the motive of their liberality does not appear.

Madame Dunois says in her Memoirs;-" He never played, or but inconsiderably; entertained with profuseness all who visited him; himself drank liberally; but in all hours, as well sober as otherwise, he kept a strict guard upon his

words, though several were either employed, by the curiosity of others or their own, to take him at his looser moments, and persuade him to reveal his secret; but he so inviolably preserved it, that even their guesses were but at random, and without probability or foundation. He was not known to be an admirer of ladies, though he might doubtless have had the good fortune to have pleased, his person being no ways despicable. What adds to our surprise is, that he was at all times to be found, and ever with some of his people, seemingly open in conversation, free from spleen or chagrin; in a word, he had that settled air, as if he was assured his good fortune would for ever continue. One of his friends advised him to purchase an estate whilst he had money. Mr. Wilson thanked him, and said that he did not forget the future in the present: he was obliged to him for his counsel; but whilst he lived it would be ever thus, for he was always certain to be master of such a sum of money."

Such is the well-known history of Beau Wilson. Madame Dunois, however, informs us that he unquestionably owed his good fortune to the weakness of a certain great lady, by which insinuation the Duchess of Cleveland is evidently meant. The Duchess, it would seem, seeing him stretched on the grass in some public gardens, conceived a predilection for his handsome person, and took pains to ascertain his history and name. She afterwards received him in private, though

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their interviews, in order that he might remain ignorant to whom he owed his good fortune, invariably took place in the dark.

We learn from the same authority, that Wilson, instead of contenting himself with his unexpected good fortune, persisted in teazing the Duchess to acquaint him to whom he was obliged. This fact he is said to have eventually discovered, by hearing the voice of the Duchess as he passed her in Hyde Park, and subsequently perceiving a particular diamond ring on her finger. The Duchess was naturally exasperated at the discovery, and sent him word, that if he disclosed her secret to any human being, she would adopt the promptest measures to have him dispatched; while, on the other hand, if he consulted his own interests and security, he might depend upon receiving her bounty as before.

Whether Wilson was imprudent enough to neglect the hint does not appear. Madame Dunois, however, informs us, that Law, the celebrated financier, received a sum of money from the Duchess for putting him out of the way, and that he effectually fulfilled his engagement. That Wilson fell by the hands of Law there is no doubt. The former challenged him on some pretence about his sister, and in the encounter Wilson was killed. The duel took place at the close of 1694, and in the Gazette of the 3rd of January, 1695, a reward is offered for Law's apprehension. The proclamation describes him as a "black, lean man,

six feet high, with large pock-marks in his face, big high nose, and speech broad and loud."

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Evelyn, in his Diary, gives a somewhat fuller account of the cause of the duel. Wilson's singular career, and the mysterious means by which he supported his magnificence, were sufficient to excite the curiosity of even the soberminded philosopher. April 22, 1694:-A young man, named Wilson, the younger son of one who had not above two hundred pounds a year estate, lived in the garb and equipage of the richest nobleman, for house, furniture, coaches, saddlehorses, and kept a table and all things accordingly, redeemed his father's estate, and gave portions to his sisters, being challenged by one Law, a Scotchman, was killed in a duel, not fairly. The quarrel arose from his taking away his own sister from lodging in a house where this Law had a mistress; which the mistress of the house thinking a disparagement to it, and losing by it, instigated Law to this duel. He was taken and condemned for murder. The mystery is, how this so young a gentleman, very sober and of good fame, could live in such an expensive manner; it could not be discovered by all possible industry, or entreaty of his friends to make him reveal it. It did not appear that he was kept by women, play, coining, padding, or dealing in chemistry; but he would sometimes say, that, if he should live ever so long, he had wherewith to maintain himself in the same manner. This was a subject of much discourse."

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