‘Sir, there’s no Seam,’ quoth she, ‘I never knew
That folks did Apple-Dumplings sew.’
‘No!’ said the staring Monarch with a grin:
‘How, how the devil got the Apple in?’ ”
Since it was thought unwise to prosecute Wolcot, after a time an endeavour was made to silence him by gentler means, and, through the instrumentality of Yorke, the Government offered the satirist a pension of three hundred a year, at which he professed to be much astonished:
“Great is the shout indeed, Sir, all abroad,
That you have order’d me this handsome thing;
On which, with lifted eyes, I’ve said, ‘Good God!
Though great my merits, yet how great the King!’
And yet, believe me, Sir, I lately heard