[Footnote 48: I found this anecdote carefully preserved among my grandfather's papers. The person who wrote it down for him, added, "Tout cœur capable de sentiment, pourra imaginer combien dans la situation de la jeune Reine, si digne d'un meilleur sort, des scènes pareilles devoient être attendrissantes, et à quel point on devoit être touché et pénétré d'admiration, en voyant que ce n'étoit pas le Faste, les grandeurs, ce trône, l'objet de l'ambition, même des plus grands heros: mais l'éloignement de sa famille royale, et ses retours sur la situation de celle ci, qui étoient la source de cette douleur et de ces larmes d'autant plus amères qu'elle les cachait avec le plus grand soin." This opinion my readers will assuredly endorse.] [Footnote 49: My narrative is made up from the "Private Journal" already mentioned, and a MS. entitled an "Historical Narrative of the Attempt to Restore the Queen." In the former, my grandfather gives the following account of the proposition:--"A momentary astonishment covered me, but it neither altered my cheek nor faltered on my tongue. I felt in the most unbounded degree where it might lead. I was conscious where it must lead. I felt myself born for the achievement, and I ardently embraced it. 'Yes,' _I_ said in reply, 'I am the man you seek; give me the commission; I am ready in a day, an hour, a minute. My life, my labour,--dispose of them as your own. Enthusiasm I shall not want in such a cause so noble, so honourable to me.' 'It is well,' he said. 'I am satisfied; wait till this evening, or, at latest, to-morrow. You shall see and talk with this person. At the Comédie Française we meet this night. Adieu.'"] [Footnote 50: In the "Private Journal" I find: "We conversed most closely, most familiarly, most unreservedly, more than an hour. Her graciousness and goodness knew no bounds. She described (as to an equal) the king, and her sister, the Princess of Brunswick, especially the last. Her dress was very simple and plain. It could scarce be more so." From the minutes of this conversation, I also find that the queen told my grandfather that three emissaries had reached her from Copenhagen. The first was a Dane of the name of Guldenstern, about a year and a half previously; the second mentioned the name of Count Holstein; he was a musician, and named some of the bourgeoisie, whom she had never heard of. The third came about a year before, but his communication was nothing.]