party.  His Royal highness had charmed all, both Scots and English, Papists and Churchmen:  “Even Quakers,” says he, “were at our meeting; and, if the stranger took a little too much British punch and ale, he will soon grow more accustomed to those liquors; and my Lord Castlewood,” says the Bishop with a laugh, “must bear the cruel charge of having been for once in his life a little tipsy.  He toasted your lovely sister a dozen times, at which we all laughed,” says the Bishop, “admiring so much fraternal affection.—­Where is that charming nymph, and why doth she not adorn your ladyship’s tea-table with her bright eyes?”

Her ladyship said, dryly, that Beatrix was not at home that morning; my Lord Bishop was too busy with great affairs to trouble himself much about the presence or absence of any lady, however beautiful.

We were yet at table when Dr. A——­ came from the Palace with a look of great alarm; the shocks the Queen had had the day before had acted on her severely; he had been sent for, and had ordered her to be blooded.  The surgeon of Long Acre had come to cup the Queen, and her Majesty was now more easy and breathed more freely.  What made us start at the name of Mr. Ayme?  “Il faut etre aimable pour etre aime,” says the merry Doctor; Esmond pulled his sleeve, and bade him hush.  It was to Ayme’s house, after his fatal duel, that my dear Lord Castlewood, Frank’s father, had been carried to die.

No second visit could be paid to the Queen on that day at any rate; and when our guest above gave his signal that he was awake, the Doctor, the Bishop, and Colonel Esmond waited upon the Prince’s levee, and brought him their news, cheerful or dubious.  The Doctor had to go away presently, but promised to keep the Prince constantly acquainted with what was taking place at the Palace hard by.  His counsel was, and the Bishop’s, that as soon as ever the Queen’s malady took a favorable turn, the Prince should be introduced to her bedside; the Council summoned; the guard at Kensington and St. James’s, of which two regiments were to be entirely relied on, and one known not to be hostile, would declare for the Prince, as the Queen would before the Lords of her Council, designating him as the heir to her throne.

With locked doors, and Colonel Esmond acting as secretary, the Prince and his Lordship of Rochester passed many hours of this day, composing Proclamations and Addresses to the Country, to the Scots, to the Clergy, to the People of London and England; announcing the arrival of the exile descendant of three sovereigns, and his acknowledgment by his sister as heir to the throne.  Every safeguard for their liberties, the Church and People could ask, was promised to them.  The Bishop could answer for the adhesion of very many prelates, who besought of their flocks and brother ecclesiastics to recognize the sacred right of the future sovereign, and to purge the country of the sin of rebellion.