AN AFFRONT 111 



Unfortunately — or, then, fortunately — Lord March 

 did not always act up to the motto that surrounded 

 the glittering star on his breast : ' Ne7)io me impune 

 lacessit' but perhaps his previous forswearing of the 

 jDinking- irons and hair-triggers of Honour — poor 

 oft-shot, riddled jade ! — had something to do with his 

 pocketing an affront that was inflicted on him at 

 Kenny's ' hell,' St. James's Street, where many other 

 similar places flourished at this period. During the 

 progress of play between his lordship and an Irish- 

 man who had earned the prefix of ' Savage ' to his 

 patronymic Roche, a dispute ensued relative to the 

 cast of a die. An altercation being started, March 

 somewhat peremptorily contradicted his ' Savage ' 

 companion, who, true to his appellation, and with 

 little ado, deliberately lifted his lordship out of his 

 chair by the ears, and raising him above his head 

 held him up to the derision of a crowded room. ' See, 

 gentlemen,' exclaimed the irate Hibernian Hercules, 

 'how I treat this contemptuous little cock-sparrow. 

 As a man he is too beneath me, or I would treat him 

 like a gentleman ! ' An exhibition of mere brute 

 strength, on a smaller and weaker person, even were 

 he in fault, does not, nor did not, entitle Roche to be 

 esteemed a gentleman. Indeed, this ruffian had a 

 name for indulging in acts of brutality, and March 



