Supremely indifferent he had been to
the opinion of the world around him, but he had never run counter to his
own conscience. For the conventionalities of the law he entertained a
supreme contempt, but he did wish so to arrange matters with which he
was himself concerned as to do what justice demanded. Whether he
succeeded in the last year of his life the reader may judge. But
certainly the three persons who were assembled around his death-bed did
respect him, and had been made to love him by what he had done.
Merton wrote the next morning to his friend Henry Annesley respecting
the scene. "The poor old boy has gone at last, and, in spite of all his
faults, I feel as though I had lost an old friend. To me he has been
most kind, and did I not know of all his sins I should say that he had
been always loyal and always charitable. Mr. Grey condemns him, and all
the world must condemn him. One cannot make an apology for him without
being ready to throw all truth and all morality to the dogs. But if you
can imagine for yourself a state of things in which neither truth nor
morality shall be thought essential, then old Mr. Scarborough would be
your hero. He was the bravest man I ever knew. He was ready to look all
opposition in the face, and prepared to bear it down.
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