Among the tributes to his fame, this spring, it should have been mentioned that, at some evening party, he had the honour of being presented, at that royal personage’s own desire, to the Prince Regent.  “The Regent,” says Mr. Dallas, “expressed his admiration of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and continued a conversation, which so fascinated the poet, that had it not been for an accidental deferring of the next levee, he bade fair to become a visiter at Carlton House, if not a complete courtier.”

After this wise prognostic, the writer adds,—­“I called on him on the morning for which the levee had been appointed, and found him in a full dress court suit of clothes, with his fine black hair in powder, which by no means suited his countenance.  I was surprised, as he had not told me that he should go to court; and it seemed to me as if he thought it necessary to apologise for his intention, by his observing that he could not in decency but do it, as the Regent had done him the honour to say that he hoped to see him soon at Carlton House.”

In the two letters that follow we find his own account of the introduction.

LETTER 94.  TO LORD HOLLAND.

     “June 25. 1812.

     “My dear Lord,

“I must appear very ungrateful, and have, indeed, been very negligent, but till last night I was not apprised of Lady Holland’s restoration, and I shall call to-morrow to have the satisfaction, I trust, of hearing that she is well—­I hope that neither politics nor gout have assailed your Lordship since I last saw you, and that you also are ‘as well as could be expected.’

“The other night, at a ball, I was presented by order to our gracious Regent, who honoured me with some conversation, and professed a predilection for poetry.—­I confess it was a most unexpected honour, and I thought of poor B-----s’s adventure, with some apprehension of a similar blunder, I have now great hope, in the event of Mr. Pye’s decease, of ‘warbling truth at court,’ like Mr. Mallet of indifferent memory.—­Consider, one hundred marks a year! besides the wine and the disgrace; but then remorse would make me drown myself in my own butt before the year’s end, or the finishing of my first dithyrambic.—­So that, after all, I shall not meditate our laureate’s death by pen or poison.

     “Will you present my best respects to Lady Holland? and believe me
     hers and yours very sincerely.”

* * * * *

The second letter, entering much more fully into the particulars of this interview with Royalty, was in answer, it will be perceived, to some enquiries which Sir Walter Scott (then Mr. Scott) had addressed to him on the subject; and the whole account reflects even still more honour on the Sovereign himself than on the two poets.

LETTER 95.  TO SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.