I dined on Sunday at the French Ambassador’s; a splendid and wretched dinner, but good wine; a quantity of dishes which differed from one another only in appearance; they had all the same taste, or equally wanted it.  The middle piece, the demeurant, as it is called, a fine Oriental arcade, which reached from one end of the table to the other, fell in like a tremblement de terre.  The wax, which cemented the composing parts, melted like Icarus’s wings, and down it fell.  Seventy bougies occasioned this, with the number of persons all adding to the heat of the room.  I had a more private and much better dinner yesterday at Devonshire House.

(138) “The Diaboliad, a poem dedicated to the Worst Man in His Majesty’s Dominion,” London, G. Kearsley, 1777.

(139) “The Diaboliad” was a social satire:  in it the devil was supposed to have grown old, and being anxious to find a successor for his throne visits London.  He appears to a gambling party:—­

“With joy and wonder struck the parties rise! 
 ‘Hell is worth trying for’ . . . cries;
 Pigeons are left unpluck’d, the game unplay’d,

And F forgets the certain Bett he made;
 E’en S-l-n feels Ambition fire his breast
 And leaves half told, the fabricated Jest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 The murmurs hush’d—­the Herald straight proclaim’d
 S-l-n the witty next in order nam’d,
 But he was gone to hear the dismal yells
 Of tortur’d Ghosts and suffering Criminals,
 Tho’ summoned thrice, he chose not to return,
 Charmed to behold the crackling Culprits burn
 With George all know Ambition must give place
 When there’s an Execution in the case.” (pp. 3 and 17.)

(1777, Aug.) . . ..  I am convinced that I shall be free some time hence from that agitation of mind with which I am now so tormented, and from those almost constant sinkings of my spirits; but, my dear Lord, you may be quite assured that des plaies comme les miennes ne se referment fas bientot, and when they do they have altered the whole constitution of the mind to such a degree as never to let it feel as it did before.  But brisons la.

Mr. D’Oyley tells me that no important news is likely to come from America before the 20th of this month.  Lady Cornwallis told me yesterday she expected some much sooner.  Mr. D’Oyley’s picture of affairs was not a joyous one, but he gave an infinitely better account of them to me than I have had from anybody else.

The Opposition affects great spirits, and to be sanguine about a change of men and of measures.  Je n’en crois rien.  Charles said last night if I would give him five guineas he would give me 100 if I lost my place.  He must get one himself to justify my accepting the proposal.  The match of tennis stark naked was not played, which I am sorry for.  Another red Ribbon vacant, Sir C. Montagu.  Clinton anticipated that which Lord Inchiquin had.