"If I had been born a corsair or a pirate, a brigand, genteel highwayman or patriot―and they're the same thing," thought Mr. Tappertit, musing among the nine-pins, "I should have been all right. But to drag out a [sic] ignoble existence unbeknown to mankind in general―patience! I will be famous yet."
1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], chapter 34