Croker was told by the Right Hon. Joseph Planta, on the authority of Miss Planta, that Mrs. Schwellenberg was so despotic that she was better served, and more attended to than the Queen herself. Her servant always waited at the step of her door that she might not have to ring a bell; and a very constant expression of hers was, that if such and such a thing was good enough for her Majesty, it was not good enough for _her_.’—Jesse’s ‘George III.,’ vol. ii., App., p. 539. Footnote 83: ‘I flatter myself _you_ will never be royally gagged and promoted to fold muslins, as has been lately wittily said on Miss Burney, in the List of five hundred living authors.’—Walpole to Hannah More, July 12, 1788. Footnote 84: ‘Diary,’ vol. iii., p. 245. ----- CHAPTER VII. The Trial of Warren Hastings—Westminster Hall—Description of it on the Opening Day of the Trial—Edmund Burke—The other Managers—Procession of the Peers—Entrance of the Defendant—The Arraignment—Speech of Lord Chancellor Thurlow—Reply of Warren Hastings—Opening of the Trial—Mr. Windham—His Admiration of Dr. Johnson—His Reflections on the Spectacle—Bearing of the Lord Chancellor—Windham on Hastings—William Pitt—Major Scott—Conversation with Windham—Partisanship—Close of the First Day’s Proceedings—Conference on it with the Queen—Another Day at the Trial—Burke’s Great Speech—Resemblance between Hastings and Windham—Fox’s Eloquence—Death of Mrs. Delany. On the 13th of February, 1788, began the trial of Warren Hastings. Miss Burney was furnished by the Queen with two tickets for the opening ceremony. She went accordingly, accompanied by her brother Charles, and also by a Miss Gomme, of whom she was commanded to undertake the charge. We abridge her description of this great spectacle. It should be premised that the zeal with which she espoused the side of the defence was due not solely to the favour shown to Mr. and Mrs. Hastings by the Court, but in an equal degree, at least, to her own personal friendship for the accused statesman and his wife, with whom she had become acquainted before she joined the royal service: “We got to Westminster Hall between nine and ten o’clock.... “The Grand Chamberlain’s Box is in the centre of the upper end of the Hall: there we sat, Miss Gomme and myself, immediately behind the chair placed for Sir Peter Burrell. To the left, on the same level, were the green benches for the House of Commons, which occupied a third of the upper end of the Hall, and the whole of the left side: to the right of us, on the same level, was the Grand Chamberlain’s Gallery.... “The bottom of the Hall contained the Royal Family’s Box and the Lord High Steward’s....