of commissions was singular enough: he was paying a clandestine visit
to Mrs. Clarke, when a carriage with the royal livery drove up to the
door, and the gallant officer was compelled to take refuge under the
sofa; but instead of the royal duke, there appeared one of his aide-de-camps,
who entered into conversation in so mysterious a manner as to excite
the attention of the gentleman under the sofa, and led him to believe
that the sale of a commission was authorised by the Commander-in-Chief;
though it afterwards appeared that it was a private arrangement of the
unwelcome visitor. At the Horse-Guards, it had often been suspected
that there was a mystery connected with commissions that could not be
fathomed; as it frequently happened that the list of promotions agreed
on was surreptitiously increased by the addition of new names. This
was the crafty handiwork of the accomplished dame; the duke having employed
her as his amanuensis, and being accustomed to sign her autograph lists
without examination.


SOCIETY IN LONDON IN 1814


In the year 1814, my battalion of the Guards was once more in its old
quarters in Portman Street barracks, enjoying the fame of our Spanish
campaign. Good society at the period to which I refer was, to use a
familiar expression, wonderfully "select." At the present time one
can hardly conceive the importance which was attached to getting admission
to Almack's, the seventh heaven of the fashionable world. Of the three
hundred officers of the Foot Guards, not more than half a dozen were
honoured with vouchers of admission to this exclusive temple of the
beau monde; the gates of which were guarded by lady patronesses, whose
smiles or frowns consigned men and women to happiness or despair. These