426 HER FUNERAL. [1821. 



Henry, who had been one of her equerries, was in the 

 carriage with us. The King had gone to Ireland, and 

 ministers, having no orders, except to prevent all honour 

 being paid, and if possible to prevent the procession 

 from marching through the City, acted upon their own 

 notions of fulfilling his intentions, and turned out the 

 troops to obstruct our passage. An attempt was made 

 by us at Kensington to move round the Palace, and so 

 reach Oxford Street, as we were told that we must not 

 go by Piccadilly. But they prevented us, and obliged 

 us to go through Hyde Park, intending to turn us at 

 Apsley House, and so oblige us to go by the New 

 Eoad. We told them distinctly that the funeral must 

 pass through the City. Nothing occurred till we got 

 near Apsley House, where the crowd was very great. 

 The hearse was allowed to pass, and turned into the 

 Park Lane direction by the soldiery. They then tried 

 to stop us, but we went on notwithstanding : I heard 

 firing, and one or two bullets whistled past us. On 

 the first noise I asked Wilson what it was : " Oh," 

 said he, " it is a noise you are not used to ; we are in 

 fire." Then said I, " We must get out of it ; but perhaps 

 we should do so as soon by going on." He said, " Cer- 

 tainly we should not be one whit worse than if we 

 turned round." So we went forward. Only Wilson 

 got out and told the officer commanding who we were, 

 and that we belonged to the procession. After a shot 

 or two more, this was effectual, and we escaped with- 

 out hurt, though one of the bullets struck the carriage. 

 We then got into Oxford Street, and found it crowded 

 by troops, who made us turn into one of the streets 

 leading to the New Eoad, the great object being to 

 prevent us from getting into the City. However, we 



