In addition to her mother, the Princess may be said to have also lost her brother this year; for though the gallant Duke of Brunswick did not fall at Quatre Bras till 1815, she never saw him again but for a brief moment on his departure from this country, two years previously. The Duke was simply a soldier and nothing more, except that he was a gallant one. He had a few relics with him in this country of the treasures of Brunswick, such as old books and antique gems, the value of neither of which did he in the least understand. His habits were of the simplest, except in the fashionable dissipation of the times; but if he was the slave of some pleasures, he was by no means the servant of luxury. He slept on a thin mattress placed on an iron frame, and covered by a single sheet. He had enjoyed sweeter sleep on it, he used to say, than many who lay upon the softest down. When he went to take leave of his sister he was in the highest spirits, from having at last the prospect of an active career in arms. The actor and the scene are well-described by the author of ‘The Diary:’--‘There never was a man so altered by the hope of glory. His stature seemed to dilate, and his eyes were animated with a fire and an expression of grandeur and delight which astonished me. I could not help thinking the Princess did not receive him with the warmth she ought to have done. He detailed to her the whole of the conversation he had with the ministers, the Prince Regent, &c. He mimicked them all admirably, particularly Lord Castlereagh--so well as to make us all laugh; and he gave the substance of what had passed between himself and those persons with admirable precision, in a kind of question and answer colloquy that was quite dramatic. I was astonished, for I had never seen any person so changed by circumstance. He really looked a hero. The Princess heard all that he said in a kind of sullen silence, while the tears were in several of the bystanders’ eyes. At length the Duke of Brunswick said: “The ministers refused me all assistance; they would promise me neither money nor arms. But I care not. I will go to Hamburg. I hear that there are some brave young men there, who await my coming, and if I have only my orders from the Prince Regent to act, I will go without either money or arms, and gain both.” “Perfectly right!” replied the Princess, with something like enthusiasm in her voice and manners. “How did Bonaparte conquer the greater part of Europe?” the Duke continued: “he had neither money nor arms, but he _took_ them; and if _he_ did that, why should not _I_, who have so much more just a cause to defend?” The Duke then proceeded to state how the Regent and the ministers were all at variance, and how he had obtained from the former an order he could not obtain from the ministers. After some further conversation, he took leave of his sister. She did not embrace him. He held out his hand to me kindly, and named me familiarly.