Fanny Burney and Her Friends: Select Passages from Her Diary and Other WritingsBurney, Fanny
General
Fanny Burney and Her Friends: Select Passages from Her Diary and Other Writings
Burney, Fanny
Burney, Fanny, 1752-1840 -- Friends and associates
“It was thought advisable the Queen should not rise, lest the King
should be offended that she did not go to him; at present he was
content, because he conceived her to be nursing for her illness.
“But what a situation for her! She would not let me leave her now; she
... frequently bid me listen, to hear what the King was saying or
doing. I did, and carried the best accounts I could manage, without
deviating from truth, except by some omissions. Nothing could be so
afflicting as this task; even now, it brings fresh to my ear his poor
exhausted voice. ‘I am nervous,’ he cried; ‘I am not ill, but I am
nervous: if you would know what is the matter with me, I am nervous.
But I love you both very well; if you would tell me truth: I love Dr.
Heberden best, for he has not told me a lie: Sir George has told me a
lie—a white lie, he says, but I hate a white lie! If you will tell me
a lie, let it be a black lie!’
“This was what he kept saying almost constantly, mixed in with other
matter, but always returning, and in a voice that truly will never
cease vibrating in my recollection.”
In the course of the morning, a third physician—Dr. Warren[93]—arrived.
His opinion was eagerly awaited by the Queen; but he did not come to
her, though repeatedly summoned. At length, Lady Elizabeth brought news
that he and the other two physicians were gone over to the Castle to the
Prince of Wales.
“I think a deeper blow I had never witnessed. Already to become but
second, even for the King! The tears were now wiped: indignation
arose, with pain, the severest pain, of every species.
“In about a quarter of an hour Colonel Goldsworthy sent in to beg an
audience. It was granted, a long cloak only being thrown over the
Queen.
“He now brought the opinion of all the physicians in consultation,
‘That her Majesty would remove to a more distant apartment, since the
King would undoubtedly be worse from the agitation of seeing her, and
there could be no possibility to prevent it while she remained so
near.’
“She instantly agreed, but with what bitter anguish! Lady Elizabeth,
Miss Goldsworthy, and myself attended her; she went to an apartment in
the same row, but to which there was no entrance except by its own
door. It consisted of only two rooms, a bedchamber, and a
dressing-room. They are appropriated to the lady-in-waiting when she
is here.
“At the entrance into this new habitation the poor wretched Queen once
more gave way to a perfect agony of grief and affliction; while the
words, ‘What will become of me! What will become of me!’ uttered with
the most piercing lamentation, struck deep and hard into all our
hearts. Never can I forget their desponding sound; they implied such
complicated apprehension.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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