Note 26 — Chapter XVI

Directly after the interview with the Princess, described by Miss Knight, the former left Warwick House, and hailing a hackney coach in Cockspur Street, ordered the coachman to drive to Connaught House, at the corner of the Bayswater and Edgware Roads, her mother's residence. We get a graphic view of this in an illustration called "Plebeian Spirit; or Coachee and the Heir Presumptive." The Princess, who, to judge by the size of the coin she is tendering, is paying lavishly,[26] says, les larmes aux yeux, "Coachman, will you protect me?" to which the gallant Jehu, hand on heart, replies, "Yes, your Highness, to the last drop of my blood." I have not given the background, for it is too painful. Britannia and the British Lion appear, and both are weeping, the Lion very copiously.