However, in November of the same year she had a more serious attack, which finally proved fatal. Queen Caroline was a woman of such energy and will that she would not succumb until the end. On the morning of the ninth she got up as usual, but was obliged to return to bed for several hours. There was to be a drawing-room that day, and as the king always said that there was neither grace, gayety, nor dignity on such occasions when the queen was absent, she exerted herself to attend, and he was inconsiderate enough to permit her to do so. Before long Lord Hervey noticed how much she was suffering, and urged her to retire; she refused at first, but finding herself growing weaker she sent for the king, who was in another part of the room discussing the merits of the last burlesque performance. At length he answered the summons, and, without any pretense of sympathy, led the queen from the room, no doubt with a feeling of great annoyance at having his entertainment interrupted. This was her last appearance in public.
She was put to bed, and Princess Caroline, who was herself in bad health, watched beside her mother until long past midnight. Then the king relieved her; that is, robed in a comfortable morning gown, he lay on the outside of her majesty's bed, and scarcely left her room enough to turn over. Besides, he was not quite comfortable, and so grumbled at being kept awake, and did more harm than good to the sufferer.
On the' following day the queen was bled, but continued to grow worse. That did not prevent his majesty from giving directions about the lace ruffles that were to be sewed in his coat-sleeves in time for the reception of the foreign ministers, before whom he was always desirous of making a display.
The Princesses Caroline and Amelia watched by their dying mother with all the devotion of dutiful, affectionate daughters, but they were not to be rewarded by seeing her recover; for on the thirteenth the physicians announced that their royal patient was beyond hope of recovery. She took a solemn, tender farewell of all her children, except ing the Prince of Wales, and Anne, who was in Holland, and whose presence in London was not desired by any one.
[Original]
Queen Caroline loved her other children as much as she disliked the two older ones; and her last words to the Duke of Cumberland were touching and sensible. After giving him a great deal of counsel, she concluded by telling him, "That should his brother. Frederick ever be king, he should never seek to mortify him, but simply try to manifest a superiority over him only by good actions and merit." She placed her two youngest daughters, Louisa and Mary, under the care of the gentle Caroline, and then took leave of the king, who was overcome with grief.
The queen expressed no desire to see Walpole, but he sought an interview, and then she requested him to take care of the king. All this time no member of the royal family had suggested that a priest should be sent for; but for the gratification of public-opinion Walpole recommended it, though he was little better than a heathen, joked about bishops, and laughed at High Church and Low. He addressed himself to the Princess Amelia on the subject thus: "It will be quite as well that the farce should be played. The Archbishop of Canterbury will perform it decently; and the princess might bid him be as short as she liked. It would do the queen neither harm nor good; and it would satisfy all the fools who called them atheists if they affected to be as great fools as they who called them so."
So Archbishop Potter was summoned, and attended the dying queen, morning and evening, but the sacrament was not administered. It was supposed that this ceremony could not be performed because of her majesty's irreconcilable hatred of her eldest son, but this could not be known positively, because all her interviews with the archbishop were private. However, everybody felt great curiosity to know whether the solemn rite had been administered, but when at his last visit the courtiers met the priest and asked eagerly, "My lord, has the queen received?" The only reply they got was, "Gentlemen, her majesty is in a most heavenly frame of mind." What that signified they were left to guess, and we may do the same.