Sir Joshua Reynolds, Horace Walpole, and all the Burkes, were potent
accomplices in this kind and singular conspiracy; which, at last, was
suddenly superseded by so obviously a dilapidated state of health
in its object, as to admit of no further procrastination; and this
uncommon struggle at length ended by the entrance at Windsor of a
successor to the invalid, in July, 1791; when, though with nearly as
much regret as eagerness, Dr. Burney fetched his daughter from the
palace; to which, exactly five years previously, he had conveyed her
with unmixed delight.
It is here a duty—a fair and a willing one—to mention, that in an
audience of leave-taking to which the Memorialist was admitted just
before her departure, the Queen had the gracious munificence to insist
that half the salary annexed to the resigned office should be retained:
and when the Memorialist, from fullness of heart, and the surprise
of gratitude, would have declined, though with the warmest and most
respectful acknowledgments, a remuneration to which she had never
looked forward, the Queen, without listening to her resistance, deigned
to express the softest regret that it was not convenient to her to do
more.[19]
All of ill health, fatigue, or suffering, that had worked the necessity
for this parting, was now, at this moment of its final operation,
sunk in tender gratitude, or lost in the sorrow of leave-taking;
and the Memorialist could difficultly articulate, in retiring, a
single sentence of her regret or her attachment: while the Queen, the
condescending Queen, with weeping eyes, laid her fair hand upon the arm
of the Memorialist, repeatedly and gently wishing her happy—“well,
and happy!” And all the Princesses were graciously demonstrative of a
concern nearly amounting to emotion, in pronouncing their adieus. Even
the King, the benign King himself, coming up to her, with an evident
intention to wish her well, as he entered the apartment that she was
quitting, wore an aspect of so much pity for her broken health, that,
utterly overpowered by the commiserating expression of his benevolent
countenance, she was obliged, instead of murmuring her thanks, and
curtseying her farewell, abruptly to turn from him to an adjoining
window, to hide a grateful sensibility of his goodness that she could
neither subdue, nor venture to manifest.
A minute or two he deigned to wait in silence her resumption of
self-command, that he might speak to her; but finding she could not
enough recover to look round, he moved silently, and not very fast,
away; taking with him a fervency of prayers and blessings that issued
from the heart’s core of his humblest, but most grateful subject.
No one, not even the bitterest of his political enemies, could have
passed five years under the roof of his Majesty George the Third,
and have seen him, whether overwhelmed by the most baneful of
calamities, or brightened by the most unexampled popularity, always,
through every vicissitude, save in the immediate paroxysms of his
malady, HIMSELF unchanged, in zeal for his people; in tender
affection for his family; and in the kindliest benevolence for all
his household—without looking up to him with equal reverence and
attachment, as a being of the most stainless INTENTIONAL
purity both in principle and in conduct.
1791.
Arrived again at the natal home, Dr. Burney welcomed back his daughter
with the most cheering tenderness. All the family,—and in the same
line in partial affection,—Mr. and Mrs. Locke, hastened to hail and
propitiate her return; and congratulatory hopes and wishes for the
speedy restoration of her health poured in upon the Doctor from all
quarters.
But chiefly Mrs. Crewe, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Messrs. Windham,
Horace Walpole, and Seward, started forward, by visits or by letters,
upon this restitution, with greetings almost tumultuous; so imbued had
been their minds with the belief that change of scene and change of
life, alone could retard a change more fatal.