cale. This invitation was gladly accepted, the holy father not
doubting but that he should have all the delicacies in the land, to
which, in common with the rest of the clergy, he had no objection; nor
was he disappointed. The dinner was recherche; the best the
establishment could furnish was placed before them, and most heartily
and lovingly did the worthy abbe devote himself to what was offered.
At the end of the repast the carte a payer was duly furnished; but what
was the astonishment of the reverend guest when Talbot declared that
his purse was completely au sec, and that it had been a long time
empty; but that upon this occasion, as upon all others, he trusted, as
the abbe had advised him, in Providence. The Abbe Pecheron, recovering
from his surprise, and being of a kind and generous disposition,
laughed heartily at Talbot's impudence, and feeling that he had
deserved this rebuke pulled out his purse, paid for the dinner, and did
what he should have done at first--wrote to the members of Talbot's
family, and obtained for him such assistance as enabled him to quit
Paris and return home, where he afterwards led a more sober life.

A DINNER AT SIR JAMES BLAND BURGES'S, IN LOWER BROOK STREET; AUTUMN, 1815

I was once invited to dinner by Sir James Burges, father of my friend,
Captain Burges, of the Guards: it was towards the end of the season
1815. I there met, to my great delight, Lord Byron and Sir Walter
Scott; and amongst the rest of the company were Lord Caledon, and
Croker, the Secretary to the Admiralty. Sir James had been private
secretary to Pitt at the time of the French Revolution, and had a fund
of curious anecdotes about everything and everybody of note at the end
of the last century. I remember his telling us the now generally
received story of Pitt dictating a King's speech off-hand--then a more
difficult task than at the present day--without the slightest
hesitation; this speech being adopted by his colleagues nearly word for
word as it was written down.

Walter Scott was quite delightful, appearing full of fire and
animation, and told some interesting anecdotes connected with his early
life in Scotland. I remember his proving himself, what would have been
called in the olden times he delighted to portray, "a stout
trencher-man." Nor were his attentions confined by any means to the
eatables; on the contrary, he showed himself worthy to have made a
third in the famous carousal in Ivanhoe