at all what the physicians thought at that time; but I did not know that.) This conviction, I suppose, had always been with me that it was for this that in God’s Providence I had been sent to England; at least, seven in the moment that I had left my house and run down the gallery, there it was, all full-formed and mature.  As to how it was to be done I had no idea at all; yet that it would be done I had no doubt.  On the other side, however, every faculty of observation that I had, was alert and tight-stretched.  I remember the very pattern of the carpet I walked on; the pictures on the walls; and the carving on the presses.  Above all I remember the little door in the corner of the chamber—­the third; and how I opened it, and peeped down the winding staircase that led from it.  (I did not know then what part that little door and winding staircase was to play in my great design!) Now and again I looked out of the single window at the river beneath in the early morning sunshine; now I paced the floor again.  It seemed to me that I had found a very pretty post of observation, as this appeared a very private little room, and that I should not be troubled here.  The great anterooms, I knew, where the company would be, must lie on the further side of the bedchamber.

I suppose it would be about five minutes after Mr. Chiffinch had left me that Her Majesty came.  The first I knew of it was a great murmur of voices and footsteps without the door.  I went to the door and pulled it a little open so that I could see without being seen, and looked up the lobby beyond the King’s chamber; for in that direction, I knew, lay Her Majesty’s apartments.  A couple of pages came first, very hastily, with rods; and then immediately after them Her Majesty herself, hurrying as fast as she could, scarce decently dressed, with a cloak flung over all, with a hood.  Behind her came two or three of her ladies.  I saw the poor woman’s face very plain for a moment, since there was no one between me and her; and even at that distance I could see her miserable agitation; her brown face was all sallow and her mouth hung open.  Then she whisked after the pages through the door into the great antechamber that lay beyond the bedroom.  I went back again, to shut the door and listen at the other; for I knew that the King’s bed was close to it (though he was not in it at this time, but still in the barber’s chair where he had been blooded); and presently I heard the poor soul begin to wail aloud.  I heard voices too, as if soothing her, for all the physicians were there, and half a dozen others; but the wailing grew, as she saw, I suppose, in what condition His Majesty was—­(for he still seemed all unconscious)—­till she began to shriek.  That was a terrible sound, for she laughed and sobbed too, all at once, in a kind of fit.  I could hear the tone very plain through the door, though I could not hear what she said; and the voices of Mr. King and others who endeavoured to quiet her.  Gradually the wailing and shrieking grew less as they forced her away and out again; till I heard it, as she went back again to her own apartments, die away in spasms.  Poor soul indeed! she was nothing accounted of in that Court, yet she loved the King very dearly in spite of his neglect towards her.  She could not even speak to him (I heard afterwards), though he had spoken her name and asked for her, after his first blooding.