In these days of _ententes cordiales_ it is difficult to realise that until Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited France in the ’forties, no reigning English sovereign had been the guest of our neighbours across the Channel, since Henry VIII. held his wonderful pageant at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Further, until Louis XVIII., as already noticed, passed through London on his way to take possession of the throne of France in 1814, no King of France had been in England since the days when the Black Prince led King John captive through the City. From that friendly visit of our young Queen dates the growing cordiality between the two countries. In 1855, amidst the spring beauties of foliage and blossom, Napoleon III. and the Empress Eugénie made a state procession through Hyde Park, driving round the Serpentine and out into Bayswater. FOOTNOTE: [4] _Ghosts of Piccadilly._ CHAPTER XI DUELS IN THE PARK I have already referred to the custom of duelling—a phase of Society which became so prominent in the romance of Hyde Park, where many a tragic encounter and bitter quarrel were fought out, that it demands a short chapter to itself. Duelling really came down to us as a relic of barbarism. It was among the northern tribes of Europe that it originated, and was introduced into England by the Normans under the “Trial by Combat.” From the Trial by Combat, which Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott have described so graphically, emanated the duel of later centuries, when the bloody Wars of the Roses had swept away the last rays of chivalry. Henry VIII. had not long acquired the wide range of land known as the Manor of Hyde, when two noblemen sought its solitary glades to decide a quarrel. A desperate duel was then fought between His Grace the Duke of B—— and Lord B——. The circumstances were these:— A ball was in progress at a Minister’s house, when the Duke imagined that Lord B—— had offered him a severe insult. He therefore sent him a challenge worded as follows: “Convince me, then, that you are more of a gentleman than I have reason to believe, by meeting me near the first tree behind the lodge in Hyde Park, precisely at half an hour after five to-morrow morning.” The Duke added that he sent two swords for Lord B—— to choose from, and concluded the note— “In the interim I wish your Lordship a good rest.” Lord B—— accepted the challenge in a friendly strain. It is reported that, his answer duly sent off, he visited several friends, when it was remarked that as he was in such good spirits he had probably been smiled upon by the Countess of Essex, whose favour he was anxious to gain. He and his second, General de Lee, set out early for the appointed spot in Hyde Park. There they had to wait for the Duke, who, however, shortly afterwards arrived, the seconds pairing the swords, and each one loading his adversaries’ pistols.