d 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
lady patronesses were the Ladies Castlereagh, Jersey, Cowper, and
Sefton, Mrs. Drummond Burrell, now Lady Willoughby, the Princess
Esterhazy, and the Countess Lieven.

The most popular amongst these grandes dames was unquestionably Lady
Cowper, now Lady Palmerston. Lady Jersey's bearing, on the contrary,
was that of a theatrical tragedy queen; and whilst attempting the
sublime, she frequently made herself simply ridiculous, being
inconceivably rude, and in her manner often ill-bred. Lady Sefton was
kind and amiable, Madame de Lieven haughty and exclusive, Princess
Esterhazy was a bon enfant, Lady Castlereagh and Mrs. Burrell de tres
grandes dames.

Many diplomatic arts, much finesse, and a host of intrigues, were set
in motion to get an invitation to Almack's. Very often persons whose
rank and fortunes entitled them to the entree anywhere, were excluded
by the cliqueism of the lady patronesses; for the female go