was delivered up and destroyed. The Princess of Wales, on the contrary, behaved very foolishly in this business ; and it gave a handle to her enemies to represent to the Regent that she ought not to be allowed indiscriminate intercourse with her daughter. They took a fiendish pleasure in laying hold of this, or any other plausible pretext, to separate the Princess from her child.

Tuesday, 10th of August, 1813.-I passed nearly an hour with Madame de Staël. That woman captivates me. There is a charm, a sincerity, a force in all she says and looks. I am not disappointed in her. The anger I felt at her for not taking up the Princess's cause more warmly is, I feel, fast vanishing away. The reason of this lies in my unhappy knowledge of the dessous des cartes-a knowledge more likely to increase than to diminishfor the poor Princess is going on headlong to her ruin. Every day she becomes more imprudent in her conduct, more heedless of propriety, and the respect she owes to herself. The society she is now surrounded by is disgraceful.

Yesterday, when I dined with her Royal Highness, the old ourang outang was there, and they sang together for some time, and after that the Princess set off with Lady [] to go to the vile Maison de Plaisance, or rather de Nuisance. It consists of two damp holes, that have no other merit than being next to the S. kennel. I was shown all over, or half over, this abominable place, and then dismissed. Lady [] told me to-day that she was left to chew the cud of her reflections for several hours. She said, that she tried "to spit them out, for that truly they were neither nutritive or sweet." She read one of Madame de Staël's Petits Romans, which I had lent her, and which she told me had given her great pleasure.

Madame de Staël's Essai sur les Fictions delights me

particularly; for every word in it is a beautified echo of my own feelings. Lady [-] told me the Princess was not content with being next door to the kennel, but would go into it; and there she was introduced to a new brother and sister-in-law of the L[---]s. Alas! what company for her to associate with! Lady [——] said she felt very much distressed at seeing her royal mistress there; and thought the mother of the Princess felt so too, for that the latter neither wants feeling nor sense. After two hours of music, i.e. charivari, the Princess returned back again to the other hole, and supped tête-à-tête with Lady [——]. This, at least, was an appearance kept up; but Lady [-] is terrified, for the Princess talked of sleeping at the "cottage." Her Royal Highness's servants are infuriated, and there is no saying how long their fidelity may hold out.

Wednesday, 11th of August.-Again I dined at Kensington, and after dinner the Princess went with Lady [——] to Mr. Angerstein's, and desired me to follow her thither. There was an awkward scene took place; for Lady Buckinghamshire, like a true vulgar, ran off the moment she saw the Princess enter the room, and nothing could persuade her to come back, instead of standing still and making a curtsy, and taking her departure quietly. The gentlemen were still at table. Mr. Boucheret was the first who came out. The Princess did not speak to the Dean of Windsor, who was there; which I regretted, for her sake. Lady [- -] told me that she had implored Lady [C] [L] to write to Mr. Whitbread, to say it is of vital consequence he should state to her Royal Highness that the "cottages" are already a cause of scandal; and, well knowing her innocent recreations, he advised that they should take place elsewhere. Perhaps he will not dare to give her this advice.

From Mr. Angerstein's the Princess went to sup at

Lady Perceval's. I am sorry for her Royal Highness; I think she has sacrificed herself, and that she is really attached to a weak intriguing woman. I heard a curious story about the Duke of Brunswick. It is said that he has an intrigue with a married woman at Shrewsbury; and, hearing that her husband was absent, the Duke set off to a rendez-vous. When he arrived at an inn there, he ordered a dinner the next day for himself and his inamorata; but his broken English, and a peculiar air belonging to him, attracted observation; and Mr. Forrester, son-in-law to the Duchess of Rutland, happening to be there, said to the landlord, "I am sure that is a French prisoner trying to escape"; accordingly a hue and cry was made after him, and he was arrested. His continued bad English confirmed them in their opinion; but he said he was an officer in the Duke of Brunswick's German legion. This was not believed; and he, infuriated at their doubts, declared himself to be the Duke of Brunswick. "No," said Mr. Forrester, "I am certain the Duke of Brunswick is not such a frippery fellow as you are." In short, he was treated with all sorts of indignity; but at length some one knew him, and he was set at liberty, and excuses out of number were made to him when it was too late.

I have long had a foresight of some great interior revolution in these kingdoms. All I see and know, and do not see but think, confirms me in this opinion. Speaking morally, it is perhaps better that a man should have a compensation in money for his wife's guilt, than in the blood of the offender; but, speaking according to my own feelings, I think that were I in such a miserable position, nothing but fighting to the death would satisfy me; how can gold be a compensation for wounded honour ? It is, according to my way of thinking, only an additional affront. If a man, from the highest of all motives, Christian humility and forbearance, pardons a faithless

wife, and the object of her guilty passion, then indeed he is truly great, and by his greatness alone overcomes his injuries, and washes away all stain from his character: --but to take a price for an injury is a cowering mean idea! that could only obtain currency from its being part of that system of trade upon which hang our law and our prophets.

Sunday.-Last night the Princess again went to sup at Mr. Angerstein's, and unfortunately Lord and Lady Buckinghamshire were there. The latter behaved very rudely, and went away immediately after the Princess arrived. Whatever her opinions, political or moral, may be, I think that making a curtsy to the person invested with the rank of Princess of Wales, would be much better taste, and more like a lady, than turning her back and hurrying out of the room.

I wonder why the Princess treats the Dean of Windsor with such marked dislike, for he has always been respectful and attentive to her and her mother, the Duchess of Brunswick. It is vexatious to those who take an interest in her Royal Highness' welfare, to observe how she slights persons to whom it is of consequence for her to show civility; and how she mistakes in the choice of those on whom she lavishes her favour. The Princess is always seeking amusement, and unfortunately, often at the expense of prudence and propriety. She cannot endure a dull person she has often said to me, "I can forgive any fault but that "; and the anathema she frequently pronounces upon such persons is," Mine Gott! dat is de dullest person Gott Almighty ever did born!"

Monday, 22nd of August.—I went and saw Lady [—]: she told me a piece of news, which it gave me great pleasure to learn, namely that Trou Madame exists no more, and that Chanticleer has been fairly driven off his

dunghill. Lady [-] does not know how this has been effected; but that it has is certain, thank heaven!Only, I fear, that if Chanticleer's wings are clipped, they will grow again; and if his neck is twisted, some other dunghill bird will roost on the same perch; and it is not only disgraceful that the Princess should have lived in intimacy with such persons as the S[apio]s, but they have extracted so much money from her, that, had their reign continued longer, she would have been greatly embarrassed. All Mr. H[-] has said to me on this melancholy subject, starts up and stares me in the face with damning truth. Even were there the excuse, though a bad one, of supposing her heart interested in any one person, I could forgive-nay, feel sympathy with her Royal Highness: but taking pleasure merely in the admiration of low persons, is beneath her dignity as a woman, not to mention her rank and station. I am sometimes tempted to wish Lord H. F[itzgeral]d had continued to love her; for I am sure, poor soul, had any one been steadfast to her, she would have been so to them; and though, as a married woman, nothing could justify her in being attached to any man, yet it is a hard and a cruel fate, to spend the chief part of one's existence unloving and unloved. How few can endure the trial! It requires strong principle, and a higher power than mortals possess, to enable them to bear such a one ;— and when I hear women sitting in judgment on the Princess, (many of them not entitled, by their own conduct as wives, to comment on the behaviour of others,) and declaiming against her with unchristian severity,—some from a feeling of self-righteousness, others from political or party motives,-it is all I can do to forbear from telling them how unamiable I think such observations. Even when a woman is guilty, I cannot bear to hear another of her own sex proclaim her fault with vehemence; I always think it proceeds from private malice, or a wish to