“I suppose the mortification was forming, for he died this evening a quarter before ten o’clock, as I found by a letter from Mr. Breton at six o’clock the following morning.” Doddington continues on the 21st:-- “I came immediately to town,” he lived at Hammersmith, “and learned from Mr. Breton, who was at Leicester House when the Prince died, that for half an hour before he was very cheerful, asked to see some of his friends, ate some bread and butter, and drank coffee; he had spit for some days, and was at once seized with a fit of coughing and spitting, which last was so violent that it suffocated him. Lord North was sent to the King. This morning the King ordered the body to be opened--an abscess was found in his side, the breaking of which destroyed him. “His physicians, Wilmot and Lee, knew nothing of his distemper, as they declared half an hour before he died ‘that his pulse was like a man’s in perfect health.’ They either would not see or did not know the consequences of the black thrush which appeared in his mouth and quite down into his throat. Their ignorance, or their knowledge of his disorder, renders them equally inexcusable for not calling in other assistance.” * * * * * Augusta, his wife, remained by his corpse for four hours, steadfastly refusing to believe that he was dead. Her position was pitiable, as she was about to become the mother of her ninth child, and felt all the desolation of a woman in her condition at being left to battle with her trouble alone. “It was six in the morning before her ladies could persuade her to go to bed, and even then she remained there but two hours. Some long ago exacted promise given to her dead husband seems to have disturbed her mind; she rose and went back into Frederick’s chamber, and there burnt the whole of the Prince’s papers. “So it was given out, but it is possible that she retained some, and that they had a bearing upon certain events which occurred later, and which will be spoken of in their place.” Doran comments on this fact as follows:-- “By this action the world lost some rare supplementary chapters to a _Chronique Scandaleuse_.” That might have been so, or not. * * * * * “When Lord North arrived at Kensington Palace with the news of the death of the Prince, he found the King looking over a card table at which sat his daughter, the Princess Amelia, the Duchess of Dorset, the Duke of Grafton, and the Countess of Yarmouth--the Walmoden; the Georges seemed fond of giving Norfolk titles to their improper belongings--_vide_ Walsingham. Lord North entered quietly and stood beside the King; in a whisper he told him of his son’s death. “‘Dead, is he?’ he remarked turning to the messenger, ‘why, they told me he was better.’ Then he went round and leant over his mistress’s shoulder: “‘Countess,’ he said very casually, ‘Fred is gone.’ That was all! * * * * *