CHAPTER III THE PERFECT LOVER To the crime of being Potts the wretched Colonel had now added malversation of a trust fund.

He chose the earls and sheriffs from among the men most celebrated for probity and knowledge: he punished severely all malversation in office [o]: and he removed all the earls, whom he found unequal to the trust [p]; allowing only some of the more elderly to serve by a deputy, till their death should make room for more worthy successors.