in her “Diary,” as far as we have observed, which shows Miss Burney to have been aware that she was a native of a free country, and she could not be pressed for a waiting-maid against her will, that she had just as good a right to live, if she chose, in St.-Martin’s-street as Queen Charlotte had to live at St. James’s.

The queen promised that, after the next birthday, Miss Burney would be set at liberty.  But the promise was ill kept; and her Majesty showed displeasure at being reminded of it.  At length Frances was informed that in a fortnight her attendance should Cease.  “I heard this,” she says, “with a fearful presentiment I should surely never go through another fortnight in so weak and languishing and painful a state of health. . . .  As the time of separation approached, the queen’s cordiality rather diminished, and traces of internal displeasure appeared sometimes, arising from an opinion I ought rather to have struggled on, live or die, than to quit her.  Yet I am sure she saw how poor was my own chance, except by a change in the mode of life, and at least ceased to wonder, though she could not approve.”  Sweetqueen!  What noble candour, to admit that the undutifulness of people who did not think the honour of adjusting her tuckers worth the sacrifice of their own lives, was, though highly criminal, not altogether unnatural!

We perfectly understand her majesty’s contempt for the lives of others where her own pleasure was concerned.  But what pleasure she can have found in having Miss Burney about her, it is not so easy to comprehend.  That Miss Burney was an eminently skilful keeper of the robes is not very probable.  Few women, indeed, had paid less attention to dress.  Now and then, in the course of five years, she had been asked to read aloud or to write a copy of verses.  But better readers might easily have been found:  and her verses were worse than even the Poet Laureate’s Birthday odes.  Perhaps that economy, which was among her majesty’s most conspicuous virtues, had something to do with her conduct on this occasion.  Miss Burney had never hinted that she expected a retiring pension ; and, indeed, would gladly have given the little that she had for freedom.  But her majesty knew what the public thought, and what became her own dignity.  She could not for very shame suffer a woman of distinguished genius, who had quitted a lucrative career to wait on her, who had served her faithfully for a pittance during five years, and whose constitution had been impaired by labour and watching, to leave the Court without some mark of royal liberality.  George iii., Who, on all occasions where Miss Burney was concerned, seems to have behaved like an honest, good-natured gentleman, felt this, and said plainly that she was entitled to a provision.  At length, in return for all the miserywhich she had undergone, and for the health which she had sacrificed, an annuity of one hundred Pounds was granted to her, dependent on the queen’s pleasure.