O’Donnell’s Disgrace
The narrator arrived home before O’Donnell. On his way to a friend’s lodgings, O’Donnell was picked up by the watch and carried to the round-house, from whence he sent for clothes to his lodgings. The next morning he arrived at the door in a chair, wrapped in a borrowed blanket, his body so sore and swollen that he could not bear wearing his own clothes. He was treated with tenderness by the mistress and her daughter, who vied in their care and attendance. Mr. Lavement could not forbear expressing his joy by malicious grins while ordering the narrator to prepare an unguent for O’Donnell’s sores.
The story of O’Donnell’s attack and stripping appeared in the news, and those who found his clothes retrieved everything except a few letters, including the one the narrator had written in the apothecary’s name. These letters, all concerning love, fell into the hands of a female author famous for scandal, who embellished them and published them. The Chelsea apothecary commenced a lawsuit against the printer for defamation. As soon as the pamphlet appeared, the ladies’ care of their patient diminished considerably until it ended in total neglect. Conscious of deserving worse than contempt, O’Donnell was glad to come off so cheaply and muttered curses and threats against the apothecary, whom he imagined had taken revenge.
By the time he had healed, his character had become so notorious that he decided to decamp. He retreated in one night without announcement, having robbed his own servant of everything belonging to him except the clothes he wore.
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