---- spring from his phaeton, and come
eagerly forward. The Duchess sent a page to meet him and beg of him not
to annoy Her Majesty by accosting her; but the page was "no let" to him--
a whole volume of remonstrance would not have availed. He pressed on, and
the august ladies were obliged to re-enter their carriage, and return to
Kensington. When on the next morning they removed from the old home, Mr.
---- was at the gate in his phaeton, and drove before them to Buckingham
Palace, and was there to give them a gracious welcome. He haunted Pimlico
for a time, but his friends finally got possession of him and suppressed
him, and so ended his "love's young dream."
It is likely that the merry young Queen laughed at the absurd
demonstrations and amatory effusions of her demented admirers; but when,
after her marriage, and her appearing always in public with the
handsomest Prince in Christendom at her side, such monomaniacs grew
desperate and took to shooting, the matter became serious. Then no more
gentlemen in phaetons menaced her peace; her demented followers were poor
wretches--so poor that sometimes, after investing in pistols, they had
not a six-pence left for ammunition. One, a distraught Fenian, pointed at
her a broken, harmless weapon, charged with a scrap of red rag.
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