distance of twenty paces, shrieked out, "Tonnerre de Dieu, c'est magnifique!"
We were ever afterwards on good terms, and supped frequently together
at the Salon. At Manton's, on one occasion, I hit the wafer nineteen
times out of twenty. When my battalion was on duty at the Tower in
1819, it happened to be very cold, and much snow covered the parade
and trees. For our amusement it was proposed to shoot at the sparrows
in the trees from Lady Jane Grey's room; and it fell to my lot to bag
eleven, without missing one: this, I may say, without flattering myself,
was considered the best pistol-shooting ever heard of.

Manton assigned as the reason why pistols had become the usual arms
for duels, the story (now universally laughed at) of Sheridan and Captain
Matthews fighting with swords on the ground, and mangling each other
in a frightful way. These combatants narrated their own story; but
its enormous exaggeration has been proved even on Sheridan's own evidence,
and the blood that poured from him seems merely to have been the excellent
claret of the previous night's debauch. The number of wounds said to
have been inflicted on each other was something so incredible that nothing
but the solemn asseverations of the parties could have gained belief;
and in those days Sheridan had not obtained that reputation for rodomontade
which he afterwards enjoyed by universal consent.


THE FAUBOURG ST. GERMAIN


The distinguishing characteristics of the residents of the "noble Faubourg,"
as it was called at the time I am speaking of, were indomitable pride
and exclusiveness, with a narrow-minded ignorance of all beyond the
circle in which its members moved. In our day of comparative equality