his return; and
on making his appearance at the gate he was hissed and hooted by the
crowd, who followed him along the Minories yelling, hooting, and using
abusive language, their numbers and threatening demeanour momentarily
increasing. About half-way up the Minories he was met by Mr. Ballantine,
the Thames police magistrate, who asked him if he could render him any
assistance; but the cool, courageous soldier simply replied that he did
not mind what was going on. When his grace had got to about the middle
of Fenchurch Street, one of the cowardly ruffians rushed out of the
crowd, and seizing the bridle with one hand attempted to dismount the
duke with the other, in which he would have succeeded but for the
courageous conduct of the groom and a body of city police, who
opportunely made their appearance at the time. The mob had now grown as
numerous as it was cowardly; but by the exertions of the police, his
grace was escorted through it and along Cheapside without sustaining
personal injury. In Holborn, however, the rabble, growing bolder, began
to throw stones and filth, and the duke, followed by the _canaille_,
rode to the chambers of Sir Charles Wetherell, in Stone Buildings,
Lincoln's Inn, where he remained, till a body of police arrived from Bow
Street, by whom he was escorted in safety to Apsley House. To make the
outrage more disgraceful, if possible, it happened on the anniversary of
the crowning victory of Waterloo; the mob, forgetting in their
unreasoning wrath the priceless services the great soldier had rendered
to the nation, whilst the cowardly rascals who composed it were the very
persons who could by no possibility be benefited by the provisions of
the bill in which they professed to take so great an interest. On the
night of the illumination which followed the passing of the Act, they
broke the windows of his grace and other opponents of the measure; and
in one of the contemporary HB sketches, _Taking an Airing in Hyde Park_,
the duke is seen looking out of one of his broken window-panes. Before
the end of the year he was visited by serious illness, and the angry
feelings his opposition to the measure had provoked, and which had been
gradually subsiding, were suddenly followed by a complete reaction in
his favour. HB commemorates this in his sketch of _Auld Lang Syne_,
which shows the happy reconciliation between John Bull and the hero of
Waterloo.

DUEL BETWEEN THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND LORD WINC