text:  What did I care about Peels or Melbournes when I could enter the council-chamber of Louis the Eleventh or pass a pleasant morning with Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle? My father lay--like a snake surrounded by fire--in the centre of what had once been his family estate; with purchasers gathering closer and closer round till like the snake of the above similitude he was inclined to sting himself to death to avoid the increasing horror of his situation