happen to me, and I would even prefer death to it.  Under such an apprehension I have considered of the means of prevention, and see none so feasible as having a confidential person about the Queen my mother, who shall always be ready to espouse and support my cause.  I know no one so proper for that purpose as yourself, who will be, I doubt not, as attentive to my interest as I should be myself.  You have wit, discretion, and fidelity, which are all that are wanting, provided you will be so kind as to undertake such a good office.  In that case I shall have only to beg of you not to neglect attending her morning and evening, to be the first with her and the last to leave her.  This will induce her to repose a confidence and open her mind to you.

“To make her the more ready to do this, I shall take every opportunity, to commend your good sense and understanding, and to tell her that I shall take it kind in her to leave off treating you as a child, which, I shall say, will contribute to her own comfort and satisfaction.  I am well convinced that she will listen to my advice.  Do you speak to her with the same confidence as you do to me, and be assured that she will approve of it.  It will conduce to your own happiness to obtain her favour.  You may do yourself service whilst you are labouring for my interest; and you may rest satisfied that, after God, I shall think I owe all the good fortune which may befall me to yourself.”

This was entirely a new kind of language to me.  I had hitherto thought of nothing but amusements, of dancing, hunting, and the like diversions; nay, I had never yet discovered any inclination of setting myself off to advantage by dress, and exciting an admiration of my person and figure.  I had no ambition of any kind, and had been so strictly brought up under the Queen my mother that I scarcely durst speak before her; and if she chanced to turn her eyes towards me I trembled, for fear that I had done something to displease her.  At the conclusion of my brother’s harangue, I was half inclined to reply to him in the words of Moses, when he was spoken to from the burning bush:  “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?  Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.”

However, his words inspired me with resolution and powers I did not think myself possessed of before.  I had naturally a degree of courage, and, as soon as I recovered from my astonishment, I found I was quite an altered person.  His address pleased me, and wrought in me a confidence in myself; and I found I was become of more consequence than I had ever conceived I had been.  Accordingly, I replied to him thus:  “Brother, if God grant me the power of speaking to the Queen our mother as I have the will to do, nothing can be wanting for your service, and you may expect to derive all the good you hope from it, and from my solicitude and attention for your interest.  With respect to my undertaking such a matter for you, you will soon perceive that I shall sacrifice all the pleasures in this world to my watchfulness for your service.  You may perfectly rely on me, as there is no one that honours or regards you more than I do.  Be well assured that I shall act for you with the Queen my mother as zealously as you would for yourself.”