nd suite; and he purchased a caleche at Brussels for his servants. It
broke down going to Waterloo, and I advised him to return it, as it
seemed to be a crazy machine; but as he had made a deposit of forty
Napoleons (certainly double its value), the honest Fleming would not
consent to restore the cash, or take back his packing case, except under
a forfeiture of thirty Napoleons. As his Lordship was to set out the
following day, he begged me to make the best arrangement I could in the
affair. He had no sooner taken his departure, than the worthy _sellier_
inserted a paragraph in 'The Brussels Oracle,' stating 'that the noble
_milor Anglais_ had absconded with his caleche, value 1800 francs!'"

In the Courier of May 13., the Brussels account of this transaction is
thus copied:--

"The following is an extract from the Dutch Mail, dated Brussels, May
8th,:--In the Journal de Belgique, of this date, is a petition from a
coachmaker at Brussels to the president of the Tribunal de Premier
Instance, stating that he has sold to Lord Byron a carriage, &c. for
1882 francs, of which he has received 847 francs, but that his Lordship,
who is going away the same day, refuses to pay him the remaining 1035
francs; he begs permission to seize the carriage, &c. This being granted,
he put it into the hands of a proper officer, who went to signify the
above to Lord Byron, and was informed by the landlord of the hotel that
his Lordship was gone without having given him any thing to pay the
debt, on which the officer seized a chaise belonging to his Lordship as
security for the amount."

It was not till the beginning of the following month that a
contradiction of this falsehood, stating the real circumstances of the
case, as above related, was communicated to the Morning Chronicle, in a
letter from Brussels, signed "Pryce L. Gordon."

Another anecdote, of far more interest, has been furnished from the same
respectable source. It appears that the two first stanzas of the verses
relating to Waterloo, "Stop, for thy tread is on an empire's dust[107],"
were written at Brussels, after a visit to that memorable field, and
transcribed by Lord Byron, next morning, in an album belonging to the
lady of the gentleman who communicates the anecdote.

"A few weeks after he had written them (says the relater), the
well-known artist, R.R. Reinagle, a friend of mine, arrived in Brussels,
when I invited him to dine with me and showed him the lines, requesti