excommunicating ire should be hurled. With rapid and decisive
energy he concentrated all his powers for instantaneous
action. He retired for a day to the seclusion of solitude, to
summon and to spur the energies of the most self-reliant mind
in Europe, as the lion draws back to gather courage for the
leap. As, like the lion, he drew back; so, like the lion, did
he spring forward upon his prey. At a ball given by the
Duchess of Devonshire, when the whole assembly were
conversing upon his supposed disgrace, and insulting by their
malevolence one whom they had disgusted by their adulation,
Brummel suddenly stood in the midst of them. Could it be
indeed Brummel? Could it be mortal who thus appeared with
such an encincture of radiant glory about his neck? Every eye
was upon him, fixed in stupid admiration; every tongue, as it
slowly recovered from its speechless paralysis, faltered
forth "what a cravat!" What a cravat indeed! Hundreds that
had, a moment before, exulted in unwonted freedom, bowed
before it with the homage of servile adoration. What a
cravat! There it stood; there was no doubting its entity, no
believing it an illusion. There it stood, smooth and stiff,
yet light and almost transparent; delicate as the music of
Ariel, yet firm as the spirit of Regulus; bending with the
grace of Apollo's locks, yet erect with the majesty of the
Olympian Jove: without a wrinkle, without an indentation.
What a cravat! The regent "saw and shook;" and uttering a
faint gurgle from beneath the wadded bag which surrounded his
royal thorax, he was heard to whisper with dismay, "D--n him!
what a cravat!" The triumph was complete.

It is stated, upon what authority we know not, that his royal