Earl Stanhope, in his _Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington_, p. 182, writes as follows: "I mentioned with much praise Lady De Lancey's narrative of her husband's lingering death and of her own trials and sufferings after Waterloo. The Duke told me that he had seen it--Lord Bathurst having lent it him many years ago." This conversation took place on the 12th October 1839. The two most famous literary men to whom Captain Basil Hall lent the narrative, were, however, Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens. Sir Walter Scott writes under date Abbotsford, 13th October 1825, that his publisher, Constable, thinks that the narrative "would add very great interest as an addition to the letters which I wrote from Paris soon after Waterloo, and certainly I would consider it as one of the most valuable and important documents which could be published as illustrative of the woes of war."[29] [Illustration: PART OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.] "I never read anything which affected my own feelings more strongly, or which, I am sure, would have a deeper interest on [_sic_] those of the public.... "Perhaps it may be my own high admiration of the contents of this heartrending diary, which makes me suppose a possibility that after such a lapse of years, the publication may possibly (as that which cannot but do the highest honour to the memory of the amiable authoress) may [_sic_] not be judged altogether inadmissible....--Most truly yours, "WALTER SCOTT."[30] [Footnote 29: Perhaps the _Memoires de Madame la Marquise de Larochejaquelein_ of which four editions were published between 1814 and 1817--one of the noblest and most touching of autobiographies--is the nearest parallel in literature to Lady De Lancey's narrative. The French Marchioness describes her experiences in Paris in 1789, and during the Insurrection of La Vendee in 1793.--ED.] [Footnote 30: The complete letter will be found in Appendix A of this volume.] [Illustration: PART OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF CHARLES DICKENS.] The following is a transcript of the most remarkable passages in Dickens' letter:-- "DEVONSHIRE TERRACE, _"Tuesday evening_, 16_th_ _March_ 1841. "MY DEAR HALL, ... "I have not had courage until last night to read Lady De Lancey's narrative, and, but for your letter, I should not have mastered it even then. One glance at it, when, through your kindness, it first arrived, had impressed me with a foreboding of its terrible truth, and I really have shrunk from it in pure lack of heart.