for him: I think it very dure not to be sorry for him, I own he used to laugh malapropos sometimes, but he was mightily mended; and for people that were civil to him he was always ready to do anything to oblige them; and for my part I am sorry, I assure.

Princess Em. Mama, Caroline is duchtich; for any part I cannot paroître.

Queen. Ah! ah! You can paroître and be duchtich very well sometimes; but this is no paroître; and I think you are very great brute. I swear now he was very good, poor my Lord Hervey ; and with people's lives that is no jest. My dear Purcel, this is the nastiest fruit I have ever tasted; is there none of the Duke of Newcastle's? or that old fool Johnstone's ?" Il étoit bien joli quelquefois, my Lord Hervey; was he not, Lifford? Lord Liff. [taking snuff]. Ees, ended he vas ver pretty company sometimes.

Princess E. shrugs her shoulders and laughs again.

Queen [to Princess Emily]. If you did not think him company, I am sorry for your taste. [To Princess Caroline.] My God, Caroline, you will twist off the thumbs of your glove.s Mais, my Lord Lifford, qui vous a conté tout ça des voleurs, du ditch, et des wagoners?

Lord Liff. I have hear it at St. James, et tout le monde en parle.

Queen [to Mrs. Purcel]. Have you sent, Purcel, to Vickers about my clothes?

Mrs. Purcel. He is here, if your Majesty pleases to see the stuffs.

Queen. No, my angel, I must write now. Adieu, adieu, adieu, my Lord Lifford.

QUEEN and the two PRINCESSES alone.

Queen. Mais, diable, Amalie, pourquoi est ce que vous voulez faire croire à tout le monde que vous êtes dure comme cette table? [Strikes the table with her hand.]

7 I have read somewhere that Mr. Johnstone, who had been King William's Secretary for Scotland, amused his old age with horticulture. 8 Note this hint of Princess Caroline's agitation.

VOL. II.

M

Princess Em. En vérité, mama, je n'ai jamais fait semblant de l'aimer pendant qu'il étoit en vie, et je ne sçais pas pourquoi donc je devrois faire semblant de le pleurer à cette heure qu'il est

mort.

Queen. Ah! psha; n'y a-t-il point de différence entre pleurer les et rire de leur malheur. Outre cela vous aviez grangens, dissime tort même quand il étoit en vie; car il s'est comporté envers vous avec beaucoup de respect; et jamais je crois a-t-il dit le moindre impertinence sur votre sujet.

Princess Em. Pour moi, je crois qu'il en a dit cent milles. Queen. Vous faites fort bien de dire que vous le croyez pour

vous excuser.

la

Princess Car. Pour moi, je ne le crois pas ; je ne dis pas que Emilie n'a pas raison de le croire; parce qu'il y a mille gens qui pensent faire leur cour en disant qu'ils l'ont entendu parler impertinemment; mais je n'ai jamais entendu de ces choses dans son stile, et je connais son stile; et outre cela il m'a paru s'être fait une règle de ne le point faire.

Queen. Eh bien! adieu, mes chères enfans, il est tard. Dites un peu en passant que la Mailbone' soit prête.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE.-The Queen's dressing-room. The QUEEN is discovered at her toilet cleaning her teeth; Mrs. PURCEL dressing her Majesty's head; The PRINCESSES, Lady PEMBROKE and Lady BURLINGTON,10 Ladies of the Bedchamber, and Lady SUNDON, Woman of the Bedchamber," standing round. Morning prayers saying in the next room.12

9 Mrs. Mailbone, her German nurse.—Ante, vol. i. p. 90.

10 Ante, p. 157. It is observable that, though they hated each other, Lord Hervey makes Lady Burlington talk with spirit and good sense.

11 This proves that she was not Mistress of the Robes. See ante, p. 30. 12" While the Queen dressed, prayers used to be read in the outward room, where hung a naked Venus. Mrs. Selwyn, Bedchamber Woman in Waiting, was one day ordered to bid the Chaplain, Dr. Madox (afterwards

1 Parson (behind the scenes). "From pride, vain glory, and hypocrisy, from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitable

2 Parson. “Good Lord deliver us !”

Queen. I pray, my good Lady Sundon, shut a little that door those creatures pray so loud, one cannot hear oneself speak. (Lady Sundon goes to shut the door.) So, so, not quite so much; 13 leave it enough open for those parsons to think we may hear, and enough shut that we may not hear quite so much. [To Lady Burlington.] What do you say, Lady Burlington, to poor Lord Hervey's death? I am sure you are very sorry.

Lady Pem. (sighing and lifting up her eyes). I swear it is a terrible thing.

Lady Burl. I am just as sorry as I believe he would have been for me.

Queen. How sorry is that, my good Lady Burlington ?

Lady Burl. Not so sorry as not to admit of consolation. Queen. I am sure you have not forgiven him his jokes upon Chiswick. I used to scold him for that too, for Chiswick is the prettiest thing I ever saw in my life. But I must say, poor my Lord Hervey, he was very pretty too.

Lady Burl. (colouring and taking snuff). I can't think your Majesty does Chiswick any great honour by the comparison. He was very well for once, like a party to Vauxhall, where the glare and the bustle entertain one for a little while, but one was always tired of one as well as t'other in half an hour.

Queen. Oh! oh! I beg your pardon. I wish all the Vauxhalls were like him, I assure you—I would divert myself exceedingly with Vauxhall; and for your half-hour, I am your humble servant; he has entertained me, poor my Lord Hervey,

Bishop of Worcester), begin the service. He said archly, And a very proper altar-piece is here, Madam!' Queen Anne had the same custom; and once ordering the door to be shut while she shifted, the Chaplain stopped. The Queen sent to ask why he did not proceed. He replied, He would not whistle the Word of God through the key-hole.' Reminiscences.

13 A trait of character. Lady Sundon would have willingly shut out the "parsons" altogether, but the Queen moderates her low-church zeal.

many and many half-hours, I can promise you: but I am sure you thought he laughed at you a little sometimes, as well as Chiswick. Come, own the truth.

Lady Burl. I never thought enough about him to think whether he did or did not; but I suppose we had all our share. Lady Sund. I must say I never in my life heard my Lord Hervey make or give into any joke upon people that he professed living at all well with. He would say a lively thing sometimes, to be sure, upon people he was indifferent to, and very bitter ones upon people he was not indifferent to; and I believe we are all glad enough to do that when we have a fair opportunity; the only difference amongst us is, who does it best and worst.

Princess Em. [to Lady Sundon]. Did you really love him? (Laughs, and mutters something in German to the Queen.)

Lady Sund. I had a great deal of reason, for he was always very particularly civil and kind to me.

Lady Burl. If he was very civil to you, it was being very particular to you, that's certain.

Queen. I beg your pardon, he was very well bred.

Lady Burl. Where it was his interest, perhaps; he was very well bred to your Majesty, I dare say.

Lady Sund. I am sure he loved the Queen.

Princess Em. That is, you are sure he said so, my good Lady Sundon, and so will all Mama's pages and gentlemen

ushers.

Lady Sund. But he has said it in a way that I think I could see whether he felt what he said or not: he has often said that the Queen had a thousand good and agreeable and amiable qualities that one should like in a private person, and that he could not conceive why those qualities were not to be loved because they were in a Queen—and one felt the justness of that way of thinking; and I assure your Royal Highness I think the Queen will have a very great loss of him, for, besides the use he was of in Parliament, which I do not pretend to be a judge of, he was certainly a constant amusement to the Queen in private, and gave up his whole time to amuse her; and I must say I do not think it is everybody (if they would give their whole time to it) is capable of amusing the Queen.

Queen. Oh! upon my word he amused me exceedingly. I pray give me the basin to wash. (Lady Pembroke kneels1 and gives the basin.) I am afraid, my good Lady Pembroke, you1

Lady Burl. You might say what you pleased, but I don't see how could think what you pleased

you

Lady Pem. I don't know; one flatters oneself, you know, and then Mr. Mordaunt was out of his wits about it.

my

Lady Burl. But you must be out of your wits too,-
Queen. I beg pardon;

*

*

*

*

Oh! poor

Lord Pembroke; he was the best man in this world, and loved you prodigiously.

Lady Pem. I believe there was nothing in the world he would not have done for me

Queen.

* *

*

*

I must say my Lady Pembroke was the best wife in the world, and you will be, I am sure, as good a wife to Mr. Mordaunt.

Lady Pem. I am sure I should deserve to be hanged if I was not, for he is the best husband in the world.

*

Before I was married he used to nurse me almost as much as he did afterwards; indeed it was that prodigious good nature that made me marry him; for in so young a man showing so much compassion and good nature to be sure is very engaging.

Enter Lord GRANTHAM.

Queen. Oh! mon Dieu! there is my Lord Grantham just come from Scarborough. How do you do, my good Lord Grantham ? How does your vapours, and how does Mr.

14 See ante, p. 16.

15 See an explanation of these blanks in the prefatory notice to this chapter, and in the note in p. 157. It is observable that in this portion of the conversation Lord Hervey's friends, Princess Caroline and Lady Sundon, have no part.