Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE UNFORTUNATE BROTHERS THE CASE OF ROBERT AND DANIEL PERREAU AND MRS MARGARET CAROLINE RUDD, 1775-6 . "What's this dull town to me? Robin's not near; He whom I wish to see, . Wish for to hear. Where's all the joy and mirth, Made life a heaven on earth ? Oh! they're all fled with thee, Robin Adair." When tenor Braham sent his plaintive air ringing through the town, few were alive who could recall the two previous occasions on which also the name of Adair was upon every lip. One day in February 1758 all London had been stirred by the elopement of Lady Caroline Keppel, daughter of second Earl Albemarle, with a rollicking Irish physician who may have been the Robert of the ballad; while during the summer of 1775 the whole world was wondering whether a man or a most beautiful woman must go to Tyburn for using the signature of Mr William Adair, the rich army agent, cousin to Dr Robin of wedding and song. In the first romance the hero received the just title of ' the fortunate Irishman': in the latter the chief personages were 'the unfortunate brothers,' Messrs Robert and Daniel Perreau. Their disaster happened thus:— On a Tuesday morning, the 7th of March 1775, a slender, middle-aged gentleman walked into the counting- house of Messrs Drummond, the great bankers of Charing Cross. Garbed in a trim snuff-coloured suit, and betraying none of the macaroni eccentricities with the exception of a gold-laced hat, his dress suited the r6le that he played in life—a sleek and prosperous apothecary. This Mr Robert Perreau of Golden Square was welcomed cordially by Henry Drummond, one of the partners in the firm, for an apothecary was almost as eminent as a doctor, and the men had met and known, each other at such houses as my Lord Egmont's or that of my Lady Lyttelton. Produc...