No. 49.
"London, 13 August 1822.
"Monsieur le vicomte,
"If the weather has put no obstacle in the way of my telegraphic dispatch, and if no accident has arrived to my special messenger, sent off at four o'clock, I hope that you have been the first on the Continent to receive the news of the sudden death of Lord Londonderry.
"This death was extremely tragic. The noble marquess was in London on Friday; he felt his head a little troubled; he had himself bled between the shoulders. After which he left for North Cray, where the Marchioness of Londonderry had been settled since a month. Fever broke out on Saturday the 10th and Sunday the 11th; but it seemed to subside in the night from Sunday to Monday, and on Monday morning the 12th the patient seemed so well that his wife, who was nursing him, thought she might leave him for a moment. Lord Londonderry, whose head was wandering, finding himself alone, got up, went into another room, seized a razor and, at the first attempt, cut his jugular vein. He fell bathed in his blood, at the feet of a doctor who was coming to his assistance.
"They are keeping back this deplorable accident as much as possible, but it has come to the knowledge of the public in a distorted shape and has given rise to all sorts of rumours.
"Why should Lord Londonderry have attempted his life? He had neither passions nor misfortunes; he was established more firmly than ever in his place. He was preparing to leave on Thursday next. He was making a pleasure-trip of a business journey. He was to be back on the 15th of October for shooting-parties, arranged beforehand, to which he had invited me. Providence ordained otherwise, and Lord Londonderry has followed the Duc de Richelieu."
*
Here are some details which did not enter into my dispatches.
On his return to London, George IV. told me that Lord Londonderry had gone to show him the scheme of instructions which he had drawn up for himself and which he was to follow at the Congress. George IV. took up the manuscript, the better to weigh its terms, and began to read it aloud. He noticed that Lord Londonderry was not listening to him and that he was turning his eyes round the ceiling of the closet:
"What's the matter, my lord?" asked the King.
"It's that insufferable John[215], sir, who is at the door; he will not go away, though I am always telling him."
The King, astonished, folded up the manuscript and said:
"You are ill, my lord; go home; get yourself bled."
Lord Londonderry went out and went to buy the pen-knife with which he cut his throat.