[127] He had a jaguar on board at the bombardment of Algiers. He gave the animal, on his return to England, to the Marchioness of Londonderry, who presented it to the Tower menagerie. [128] Whilst holding this appointment he received Queen Caroline on her arrival in Plymouth Sound, and was one of the witnesses at her celebrated trial. The mob were so exasperated at his evidence that, on the night of June 8th, 1820, they broke his windows, whereupon he issued from the house with sword and pistol, and dispersed them.--_The Greville Memoirs._ _SAMUEL FOOTE_, WIT AND DRAMATIST. [Illustration: (beginning of chapter vignette.)] _SAMUEL FOOTE_,[129] WIT AND DRAMATIST. 'He was a fine fellow in his way, and the world is really impoverished by his sinking glories. I would have his life written with diligence.'[130]--DR. JOHNSON. It is not a little remarkable that the fame of Samuel Foote, great as it was during his lifetime, and for some time after his death, has so rapidly dimmed; for he was not only a capital mimic, a boon companion, a most generous master to his subordinates, a ready wit, and an accomplished actor, but he was also a fair scholar, a bitter though an avowed satirist, and a prolific, as well as skilled, dramatic writer and critic. He wrote about thirty pieces for the stage (which were translated into the German in 1796), and the list of his works in their various editions occupies about thirty pages in the MS. British Museum catalogue. His slightest sayings were carefully preserved; and the very slightness of some of them is, perhaps, one of the strongest evidences of the fame which he enjoyed.