In speaking of M. Lascaris, of whom Monsieur L. has written a great deal,[64] Lady Hester said M. Lascaris had the heart of a Roman with the intrigue of a Greek.
FOOTNOTES:
[62] The medallion came into the possession of M. Marino Mattei, a merchant of Cyprus, who bought it for thirty-five dollars, of a Syrian; but, being made acquainted with Lady Hester’s loss, he immediately offered to restore it for the price it had cost him.
[63] A sailor’s phrase best expresses what these people do, who cannot be said to go to bed.
[64] See Souvenirs de l’Orient, appendix.
CHAPTER IX.
Queen Caroline’s trial—In what manner the first inquiry was suppressed—Lady Hester’s opinion of the P——ss of W.—Young Austin—Lord Y.—P. of W.—His disgust at the slovenly habits of the P——ss.—Mrs. Fitzherbert—Mrs. Robinson—Mr. Canning—His person—His duplicity—and deceit—His incapability of acting without guidance—His disposition to babble—Lady Hester’s account of a great serpent—Mr. T. Moore—Lord Camelford—His liberality—Some anecdotes of that high-spirited nobleman—Arrival of Madame L.—She is seized with brain-fever, and dies raving mad—Visit of General Cass.
Some allusion having been made to Queen Caroline, Lady Hester asked me what they said in England about her trial. “Do,” said she, “tell me something about it: did you see her?—I suppose it was like Warren Hastings’s trial.” She continued: “I prevented the explosion the first time, and I will tell you how. One day, the Duke of Cumberland called on me, and, in his accustomed manner, began—‘Well, Lady Hester, it will be all out to-morrow: we have printed it all, and to-morrow it will be all out.’ I knew what he meant, and said to him, ‘Have you got the chancellor’s leave? I, for my part, don’t like the business at all.’—‘Why don’t you like it?’ asked the duke. ‘Because,’ answered I, ‘I have too much respect for royalty to desire to see it made a subject for Grub Street songs.’ I did not say this so much on the P. of W.’s account, as for the sake of the P——ss ——; I dreaded the other disclosures to which a business like this might lead. The duke turned away, as if in thought, and I saw that the same idea struck him; for, after a pause, he resumed his position, and answered—‘You are quite right, Lady Hester; by God! you are quite right: but what am I to do? we have gone too far: what am I to do?’—‘Why, I think,’ rejoined I, ‘the best thing you can do, is to go and ask the chancellor.’ So off he packed; and I fancy Mr. Percival, and the chancellor, and he, talked it over, and decided on quashing the business.
“Why, doctor, the papers were all printed, and it cost Mr. Percival £10,000 out of the secret service money to recover one copy which had been taken off his table. Going out in a hurry, and forgetting to lock it up, he had left the book open in his room. It was not a thing to escape. Somebody stole it; and I know, to a certainty, that it cost him £10,000 to get it back again.
“As for the P—ss of W., I did not care about her. She was a nasty, vulgar, impudent woman, that was not worth telling a lie about. I never could feel for her. If she had been a different kind of person, one might have made up one’s mind to swear that it was one’s self that was walking in one’s night-clothes from one bed-room to another, and not her royal highness. I always used to tell the ladies in waiting, if ever they saw me closeted with her, to contrive some excuse or other to come in and break up the conversation. I was determined she should never make a confidante of me. Sometimes she would begin, ‘You know, Lady Hester, that Sir Richard’—and then I was sure to begin to cough or to interrupt her with, ‘Oh! I am going out to walk,’ or whatever happened to come into my head, so as to put a stop to her revelations.