The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 48 pages of information about The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 48 pages of information about The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction.

“I have increased respect for the Bishop of Salisbury, because he appeared to have fully performed his duty in her education.  She had, as I have said, great knowledge of the history of this country, and in the businesses of life, and a readiness in anecdotes of political parties in former reigns.”

“How often I see her now entering the room (constantly on his arm) with slow but firm step, always erect—­and the small but elegant proportion of her head to her figure, of course more striking from her situation.  Her features, as you see, were beautifully cut; her clear blue eye, so open, so like the fearless purity of truth, that the most experienced parasite must have turned from it when he dared to lie.”

“I was stunned by her death:  it was an event in the great drama of life.  The return from Elba!  Waterloo!  St. Helena!  Princess Charlotte dead!—­I did not grieve, I have not grieved half enough for her:  yet I never think of her, speak of her, write of her without tears, and have often, when alone, addressed her in her bliss, as though she now saw me, heard me; and it is because I respect her for her singleness of worth, and am grateful for her past and meditated kindness.”

“Her manner of addressing Prince Leopold was always as affectionate as it was simple—­’My love;’ and his always, ‘Charlotte.’  I told you that when we went in from dinner they were generally sitting at the pianoforte, often on the same chair.  I never heard her play, but the music they had been playing was always of the finest kind.”

“I was at Claremont, on a call of inquiry, the Saturday before her death.  Her last command to me was, that I should bring down the picture to give to Prince Leopold upon his birthday, the 16th of the next month. * *

“If I do not make reply to different parts of your letter (always satisfactory in a correspondence), it is because I fear, having no long time to write in, that I may lose something by delay, in narrating the circumstances of my yesterday’s visit to Claremont, when I was enabled through the gracious kindness of my sovereign, to fulfil that promise so solemnly given and now become so sacred a pledge.”

“It was my wish that Prince Leopold should see the picture on his first entering the room to his breakfast, and accordingly at seven o’clock I set off with it in a coach.  I got to Claremont, uncovered and placed it in the room in good time.  Before I took it there, I carried it in to Colonel Addenbrooke, Baron Hardenbroch, and Dr. Short, who had been her tutor.  Sir Robert Gardiner came in, and went out immediately.  Dr. Short looked at it for some time in silence, but I saw his lips trembling, and his eyes filled to overflowing.  He said nothing, but went out; and soon after him Colonel Addenbrooke.  The baron and I then placed the picture in the prince’s room.”

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.