November 29.—­Awaked from horrid dreams to reconsideration of the sad reality; he was such a kind, obliging, assiduous creature.  I thought he came to my bedside to expostulate with me how I could believe such a scandal, and I thought I detected that it was but a spirit who spoke, by the paleness of his look and the blood flowing from his cravat.  I had the nightmare in short, and no wonder.

I felt stupefied all this day, but wrote the necessary letters notwithstanding.  Walter, Jane, and Mrs. Jobson dined with us—­but I could not gather my spirits.  But it is nonsense, and contrary to my system, which is of the stoic school, and I think pretty well maintained.  It is the only philosophy I know or can practise, but it cannot always keep the helm.

November 30.—­I went to the Court, and on my return set in order a sheet or two of copy.  We came back about two—­the new form of hearing counsel makes our sederunt a long one.  Dined alone, and worked in the evening.

FOOTNOTES: 

[385] For an account of M. Chevalier, and an interview in 1815 with David “of the blood-stained brush,” see Life, vol. v. p. 87.

[386] Madame de Souza-Botelho, author of Adele de Senanges, and other works, which formed the subject of an article in the Edinburgh, No. 68, written by Moore.  At the time Scott met her she had just lost her second husband, who is remembered by his magnificent editions of Camoens’ Lusiad, on which it is said he spent about L4000.  Mme. de Souza died in 1836.

[387] Hamlet, Act II.  Sc. 2.

[388] The following mixed metaphor is said to have been taken from one of his speeches:—­“Ministers were not to look on like Crocodiles, with their hands in their breeches’ pockets, doing nothing.”

[389] The story regarding Castlereagh’s Radiant Boy, is that one night, when he was in barracks and alone, he saw a figure glide from the fireplace, the face becoming brighter as it approached him.  On Lord Castlereagh stepping forward to meet it, the figure retired again, and as he advanced it gradually faded from his view.  Sir Walter does not tell us of his friend Stanhope’s ghostly experience.

[390] Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel—­Character of Shaftesbury.—­J.G.L.

[391] The name has since been bestowed on the high ground on the bank of the Seine, on which was built the Palace in connection with the International Exhibition of 1878.

[392] It should be noted that Scott wrote “manner” not “manners,” as in all previous editions the word is printed.  Of Cooper, his latest American biographer, Mr. Lounsbury, says there was in his manner at times “a self-assertion that often bordered, or seemed to border, on arrogance” (p. 79).

Of this interview, Cooper is said to have recorded in after years that Scott was so obliging as to make him a number of flattering speeches, which, however, he did not repay in kind, giving, as a reason for has silence, the words of Dr. Johnson regarding his meeting with George III.:  “It was not for me to bandy compliments with my sovereign.”  These two “lions” met on four occasions, viz., on the 3d, 4th, and 6th November, Scott leaving Paris next day.