12th.—Dined at Mrs. Weddell’s. The treaty of subsidy to Holland much found fault with by Mr. Horner, as the debt of Russia was one contracted for the first partition of Poland.
15th.—Went to Hampstead to see Miss [ ], who is at school there, and was surprised at the view, which is more extensive and wild than would be expected so near London.
16th.—Dined at Lady Louisa Macdonald’s, at Sheen. The country looked very beautiful; the weather, however, has been rainy and uncertain.
18th.—I dined with Lady Rolle, and went in the evening to the Magdalen, where a Mr. Stevens preached a very flowery sermon, and the women sang three hymns.
June 19th, 1815.—Went with Mrs. Hicks to the Argyle Rooms, to hear a morning lecture of the Abbé Sicard, on his mode of instructing the deaf and dumb; and two of his scholars, one a young man, and the other aged forty-two, answered metaphysical questions. He was tedious and dull in his manner of explaining; and I was not by any means surprised at their answers or mode of reasoning, thinking what I knew of the instruction of similar beings, at Rome, more skilful and interesting. This day reports were spread, of an unfavourable nature, relative to the affairs in Flanders. It was said that Bonaparte had made an attack, and that the Duke of Wellington had been forced to retreat.
20th.—In the evening I called on Princess Castelcicala, and Mrs. Hicks; everybody very anxious about the news. It was reported, however, that victory was in our favour.
On the 22nd came the account of the most decisive and important victory. The Duke of Brunswick killed, gallantly fighting at the head of his brave little army—the Prince of Orange wounded—Lord Uxbridge lost a leg—General Picton killed. The Prussians fought most nobly as well as our own people, and Bonaparte lost almost all his artillery, with the total defeat and dispersion of his chosen body of Imperial Guards, and, indeed, of his whole army. I went with Lady Aylesbury to visit the Duchess d’Angoulême, whom we found in sober joy.
CHAPTER IV.
REJOICINGS FOR WATERLOO—THE MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND—PRINCE LEOPOLD—MARRIAGE RUMOURS—MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE—HOW IT WAS BROUGHT ABOUT—LATER REVELATIONS—CHARACTER OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.