558

MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS MARY.

catch the eye of the Princess Mary, she whispered to the Queen, who perceiving his object, deigned to look, and appeared pleased with the amusement. The effect of this attention was almost electrical; and the very persons who a few moments before despised the entertainment, as they passed along, now pressed as near as they could to become spectators: so that the poor fellow was for some time encircled by a crowd of lords and ladies, who applauded his performance, and rewarded him bountifully, in mere imitation of the royal example.

This humourous scene lasted about half an hour; after which, the royal party drove down to the bottom of the course, where two splendid marquees were pitched, and abundance of refreshments provided for their accommodation.

On the twenty-second of the following month, the long-expected marriage of the Princess Mary and the Duke of Gloucester took place in the grand saloon at Buckingham House, when a numerous assembly of the royal family and various persons of distinction were present. About nine o'clock in the evening the Queen took her station on the left side of the altar in a state chair; the Princesses Augusta and Elizabeth, the Duchess of York, and the Princess Sophia of Gloucester, being on her left; while on the opposite side stood the Prince Regent and his royal brothers. The Duke of Cambridge intro

duced the bride, and presented her to the Regent, who gave her away in marriage. At the conclusion of the ceremony the royal family retired to the Queen's apartments; and in the mean time a profusion of refreshments was served round to the company, among whom Her Majesty soon re-appeared to receive their congratulations.

The remainder of this summer passed without any thing remarkable; but at the end of the year Her Majesty received the tidings of the death of her brother, the Grand Duke Charles-Louis-Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. This news was the more distressing, as the preceding accounts from Germany stated the grand duke to be in good health, after having spent some months in travelling. But on the sixth of November, about five in the morning, he was attacked by a fit of apoplexy, which deprived him of his faculties; and at four in the afternoon he expired in the presence of his second son, Duke Charles. He was born the tenth of October, 1741, lived many years in the Hanoverian service, and in 1794 succeeded his brother in the ducal honours and estates. The sovereignty which the extorted Rhenish confederacy guaranteed to him he did not exercise to the oppression of his subjects; and upon the liberation of the continent he obtained the dignity of grand duke. He was twice married, and to two sisters of the House of Darmstadt. By the first alliance he left four chil

560 DEATH OF THE DUKE OF MECKLENBURG.

dren ; namely, his successor, the Grand Duke George-Frederick-Charles, born in 1779, and the wives of the Duke of Hildburghausen, the Prince of Tour and Taxis, and the Duke of Cumberland. By the second marriage he left one son, Duke Charles-Frederick-Augustus.

CHAPTER XXIX.

State of Her Majesty's Health.-Spasmodic Attack.Recovery.-Eton Montem.-Entertainment at Frogmore.-Case of the Reverend Mr. Roper.-Royal Visit to Bath.-Death of the Princess Charlotte.-Its Effects on the Queen, who returns to Windsor.-Calumny refuted.-Reflections on that Event.

THOUGH the infirmities of age were now perceptible, Her Majesty's habitual equanimity of temper, and general liveliness of spirits, prevented them from being burthensome to herself, or irksome to others, for which this reason was alleged by herself, that she hardly knew what tedium was, every minute in the day being regularly occupied. This was the constant antidote to the cares and troubles of which the Queen had no common share for a person in her high station. The recent death of her brother, and the attack upon her son in his return from the House of Lords on the twenty-eighth of January, 1817, gave her considerable uneasiness, and had a visible effect upon her health. No alarming symptoms, however, were indicated till the twenty-second of April, when preparations were making for a drawing-room to be held on the

morrow, being St. George's Day. In the course of the night Her Majesty was seized with a spasmodic affection, which rendered a consultation of physicians necessary, and the following bulletin was issued:-" The Queen has had a cold, attended by some fever, and pain in the side: Her Majesty found the pain severe in the night, but it is much abated this morning." Though there was too much reason to apprehend that an important viscus was the seat of disease, such was the excellence of Her Majesty's constitution, and the attention of the physicians, that she recovered from this attack; and on the twenty-sixth of the same month her convalescence was officially announced. Still it was deemed adviseable that she should forbear the fatigue necessarily attendant upon the ceremonies of a draw ing-room, at least for some time; and public notice to that effect was accordingly circulated.

On the twenty-seventh of May, Her Majesty, the Princesses Augusta and Elizabeth, with their attendants, went to Eton College to be present at the Montem, a festival which had frequently before been honoured by royal visits. Soon afterwards the Prince Regent arrived from London; and in a short time the procession began to move, according to the accustomed form, preceded by the bands of the Guards, amidst the greatest assemblage of beauty and fashion that had been known on a similar occasion for many years.