The queen was unremittingly sweet and gracious, never making me sensible
of any insufficiency from my single attendance; which, to me, was
an opportunity the most favourable in the world for becoming more
intimately acquainted with her mind and understanding. For the
excellency of her mind I was fully prepared; the testimony of the nation
at large could not be unfaithful; but the depth and soundness of her
understanding surprised me: good sense I expected--to that alone she
could owe the even tenor of her conduct, universally approved, though
examined and judged by the watchful eye of multitudes. But I had not
imagined that, shut up in the confined limits of a Court, she could have
acquired any but the most superficial knowledge of the world, and the
most partial insight into character. But I find, now, I have only done
justice to her disposition, not to her parts, which are truly of that
superior order that makes sagacity intuitively supply the place of
experience. In the course of this month I spent much time quite alone
with her, and never once quitted her presence without fresh admiration
of her talents.
There are few points I have observed with more pleasure in her than
all that concerns the office which brings me to her in this private and
confidential manner. All that breaks from her, in our tete-a-tetes, upon
the subject of dress, is both edifying and amiable. She equips herself
for the drawing-room with all the attention in her power; she neglects
nothing that she thinks becoming to her appearance upon those occasions,
and is sensibly conscious that her high station makes her attire
in public a matter of business. As such, she submits to it without
murmuring; but a yet stronger consciousness of the real futility of such
mere outward grandeur bursts from her, involuntarily, the moment the
sacrifice is paid, and she can never refuse herself the satisfaction of
expressing her contentment to put on a quiet undress. The great coats
are so highly in her favour, from the quickness with which they enable
her to finish her toilette, that she sings their praise with fresh
warmth every time she is allowed to wear them, archly saying to me, with
most expressive eyes, “If I could write--if I could but write!--how I
would compose upon a great coat! I wish I were a poetess, that I might
make a song upon it--I do think something very pretty might be said
about it.”
These hints she has given me continually; but the Muse was not so kind
as ever to make me think of the matter again when out of her sight-till,
at last, she one day, in putting on this favourite dress, half gravely,
said, “I really take it a little ill you won't write something upon
these great coats!”
I only laughed, yet, when I left her, I scribbled a few stanzas, copied
them very fairly, and took them, as soon as they were finished, into her
room; and there kept them safely in my pocket-book, for I knew not how
to produce them, and she, by odd accident, forbore from that time to
ask for them, though her repeated suggestion had, at last, conquered my
literary indolence.[221]
I cannot here help mentioning a very interesting little scene at which I
was present, about this time. The queen had nobody but myself with her,
one morning, when the king hastily entered the room, with some letters
in his hand, and addressing her in German, which he spoke very fast, and
with much apparent interest in what he said, he brought the letters
up to her, and put them into her hand. She received them with much
agitation, but evidently of a much pleased sort, and endeavoured to kiss
his hand as he held them. He would not let her, but made an effort, with
a countenance of the highest satisfaction, to kiss hers. I saw instantly
in her eyes a forgetfulness, at the moment, that any one was present,
while, drawing away her hand, she presented him her cheek. He accepted
her kindness with the same frank affection that she offered it; and the
next moment they both spoke English, and talked upon common and general
subjects.
What they said I am far enough from knowing; but the whole was too rapid
to give me time to quit the room; and I could not but see with pleasure
that the queen had received some favour with which she was sensibly
delighted, and that the king, in her acknowledgments, was happily and
amply paid.