One great and important arrangement yet remained to be made ere Mr. Wraxall could advance further,--the mode of delivering his despatches to the queen. It was hardly practicable to present a letter to her, except in public; and even to do that, a pretext was necessary, which might have, at least, an air of plausibility. Mr. Wraxall, while at Hamburg, had accidentally heard Mr. Mathias, the British minister, say that he might have occasion to write to her Majesty at Celle on the subject of a company of comedians, who were accustomed to repair thither annually in the autumn, to play for the amusement of the queen. Mr. Wraxall, therefore, determined to say that he was the bearer of such a letter from Mr. Mathias, of which he had taken charge on his way back to England, through Hanover and Holland. He was well aware that he should have the honour of an invitation to dine at her Majesty's table, and as no better mode of communicating his errand to her offered itself, he resolved to give the letter into the queen's hand in the drawing-room, when he should be presented to her before dinner. Having formed this resolution, Mr. Wraxall sat down on the night of his arrival in Celle and drew up a despatch, addressed to her Majesty, in which he stated every circumstance relating to his mission. He entered into the requisite detail, only reserving the names of the noblemen who had sent him, until he should have the honour of being admitted to a private interview with the queen. He stated the conditions demanded of her, and concluded by entreating her to favour him with as quick and explicit an answer as the nature of the subject would admit. He especially requested her Majesty to take some occasion of re-delivering his letter to him, for two reasons: one, that it might be unsafe for such a document to remain in her hands; the other, that the contents of it would be the best testimony to the persons for whom he was acting that he had accurately conceived and faithfully executed the purpose for which he was sent. Conscious, nevertheless, that such a communication, made to the queen at a moment when she was totally unprepared for it, before witnesses and in the presence of the Hereditary Princess of Brunswick, might disconcert and agitate her, Mr. Wraxall felt the necessity of guarding against so dangerous an accident as far as possible. Hence he wrote on the first page of the letter the following words:--