Chapter 11

The life and character of this man present unusual difficulties. On one side he was unduly lauded, he was represented, especially by himself, as a paragon of all virtues; on the other he was decried with virulence, his past life raked over, and every scandal brought to the surface and exposed to public view, and we cannot be at all sure that all these scandals laid to his charge were true. We do not know much about his origin, and why he was named Peters; he was the son of a Thomas Dickwood, _alias_ Peters, and Mar…