In the "Imitation of the 2nd Sat. Book I. of Horace," only to be found
in modern editions, but attributed, I fear, too justly to Pope, there is
an allusion to "poor E----s," who suffered by "_the fatal steel_," for
an intrigue with a royal mistress. E----s is no doubt _John Ellis_, and
the royal mistress the _Duchess of Cleveland_. (See Lord Dover's
Introduction to the "Ellis Correspondence," and "Anecdotes of the Ellis
Family," _Gent. Mag_. 1769. p. 328.) But I cannot discover any trace of
the circumstances alluded to by Pope. Yet Ellis was a considerable man
in his day;--he had been Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in
the reign of Charles II., and was Under-Secretary of State under William
III.; he is said to have afterwards sunk into the humbler character
{246} of a "London magistrate," and to have "died in 1788, at 93 or 95,
immensely rich." I should be glad of any clue to Pope's allusion.