Of the afternoon she writes: ‘It was melancholy to see the crowds of former welcome visitors who were now denied access. The Prince reiterated his former orders; and I perceived from my window those who had ventured to the door returning back in tears.’ She received letters of inquiry, but was not at liberty to write a word. The night of the 19th was no better than that of the 16th. ‘Mr. Charles Hawkins came,’ proceeds the Diary. ‘He had sat up. Oh, how terrible a narrative did he drily give of the night!—short, abrupt, peremptorily bad, and indubitably hopeless. I did not dare alter, but I greatly softened this relation, in giving it to my poor Queen.’ On this day Dr. Warren told Mr. Pitt that there was now every reason to believe that the King’s disorder was no other than actual lunacy. All the equerries, except one who was ill, were now on duty. The King, in his rambling talk, reproached them with want of attention. They lost their whole time at table, he said, by sitting so long over their bottle; ‘and Mr. Digby,’ he added on one occasion, ‘is as bad as any of them; not that he stays so long at table, or is so fond of wine, but yet he’s just as late as the rest; for he’s so fond of the company of learned ladies, that he gets to the tea-table with Miss Burney, and there he stays and spends his whole time.’ Colonel Digby, in repeating this speech to the lady interested, was good enough to explain to her that what the King had in his head was—Miss Gunning. The Colonel went on to mention Miss Gunning’s learning and accomplishments with great praise, yet ‘with that sort of general commendation that disclaims all peculiar interest;’ touched, in a tone of displeasure, on the report that had been spread concerning him and her; lightly added something about its utter falsehood; and concluded by saying that this, in the then confused state of the King’s mind, was what his Majesty meant by ‘learned ladies.’ More puzzled than enlightened by this explanation, Fanny, with some hesitation, assented to the insinuating Chamberlain’s suggestion that she should think no more of what the King had said, but allow the Colonel ‘to come and drink tea with her very often.’ From the 20th to the 28th there was no improvement in the condition of the sick monarch. Nearly all who saw him, whether physicians or members of the suite, began to abandon hope of his recovery; only Sir Lucas Pepys, an old friend of the Burneys, who was now added to the medical attendants, inclined to a more encouraging view. The proceedings of the 28th are entered in the Diary, as follows: