of
my dragons, though I don't expect ever to overcome them."

After his four lectures on the Georges had been delivered in New York, a
storm of angry abuse was let loose upon him in Canada and the other
British Provinces. The British-Americans, snubbed both by Government and
society when they go to England, repay the slight, like true Christians,
by a rampant loyalty unknown in the mother-country. Many of their
newspapers accused Thackeray of pandering to the prejudices of the
American public, affirming that he would not dare to repeat the same
lectures in England, after his return. Of course, the papers containing
the articles, duly marked to attract attention, were sent to him. He
merely remarked, as he threw them contemptuously aside,--"These fellows
will see that I shall not only repeat the lectures at home, but I shall
make them more severe, just because the auditors will be Englishmen." He
was true to his promise. The lecture on George IV. excited, not, indeed,
the same amount of newspaper-abuse as he had received from Canada, but a
very angry feeling in the English aristocracy, some members of which
attempted to punish him by a social ostracism. When I visited him in
London, in July, 1856, he related this to me, with great good-humor.
"There, for instance," said he, "is Lord ----" (a prominent English
statesman) "who has dropped me from his dinner-parties for three months
past. Well, he will find that I can do without his society better than
he can do without mine." A few days afterwards Lord ---- resumed his
invitations.

About the same time I witnessed an amusing interview, which explained to
me the great personal respect in which Thackeray was held by the
aristocratic class. He never hesitated to mention and comment upon the
censure aimed against him in the presence of him who had uttered it. His
fearless frankness must have seemed phenomenal. In the present instance,
Lord ----, who had dabbled in literature, and held a position at Court,
had expressed himself (I forget whether orally or in print) very
energetically against Thackeray's picture of George IV. We had occasion
to enter the shop of a fashionable tailor, and there found Lord ----.
Thackeray immediately stepped up to him, bent his strong frame over the
disconcerted champion of the Royal George, and said, in his full, clear,
mellow voice,--"I know what you have said. Of course, you are quite
right, and I am wrong. I only regret that I did not think o