About the time at which this man met his most deserved punishment, the public journals teemed with accounts of the impudence and crimes of the parti-coloured tribe of servants denominated footmen. To such a daring pitch had their impudence arrived, that they created a riot at the theatre in Drury Lane, even in the presence of the heir-apparent to the throne. One evening when the Prince and Princess of Wales, the father and mother of King George III., attended the performance, these miscreants commenced a dreadful uproar. It was then the custom to admit servants in livery into the upper gallery _gratis_, in compliment to their employers, on whom they were supposed to be in attendance; and not content with peaceably witnessing the performance, they frequently interrupted those who had paid for admission, and, assuming the prerogative of critics, hissed or applauded with the most offensive clamour. In consequence of these violent proceedings, the manager shut the door against them, unless they each paid their shilling. Upon an occasion when that part of the royal family already mentioned were present, they mustered in a gang, to the number of three hundred; broke open the doors of the theatre, fought their way to the very door of the stage, and, in their progress, wounded twenty-five peaceable people. Colonel De Veil, then an active magistrate for Westminster, happened to be present, and in vain attempted to read a proclamation against such an outrage; but, though they obstructed him in his duty, he caused the ringleaders to be secured, and the next day committed three of them to Newgate. At the ensuing sessions they were convicted of the riot, and sentenced to imprisonment. In the mean time, the choler of these upstarts was raised to such a pitch, that they sent the following threat to the manager:-- "To Mr. Fleetwood, in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, Master of the Theatre, Drury Lane. "SIR,--We are willing to admonish you, before we attempt our design: and provided you use us civil, and admit us into our gallery, which is our property, according to formalities; and if you think proper to come to a composition this way, you'll hear no further; and if not, our intention is to combine in a body, _incognito_, and reduce the playhouse to the ground; valuing no detection--we are indemnified!" The manager carried this letter to the Lord Chamberlain, who ordered a detachment of fifty soldiers to do duty there each night, and thus deterred the saucy knaves from carrying their threats into execution.