requires your presence in the library,' said the Queen. The Prince took the hint and retired, stung with mortification at the rebuke which he had received.

A few days previously to this conversation Harriot Vernon had ceased to be an honourable maid-the day subsequent to it she was no longer a Maid of Honour.

In

It cannot be concealed that one of the greatest faults of the Prince of Wales, at this time, was his unbounded propensity to gallantry; he had formed a connexion with certain persons, whose principal aim appears to have been to exalt him in his own opinion, and who servilely fell into all his views for the purpose of their own aggrandizement. There was no act too grovelling nor too base to which they would not stoop, to ingratiate themselves in his favour-there was no virtue which they would not attempt to undermine, to pander to his passions. It must be admitted that they were men of superior talents and education; but as the companions of a Prince naturally addicted to libertinism, they were perhaps on that very account the very worst men that he could have selected as his associates. manners they were themselves debauched and profligate-in fortunes they were broken, and it was for the amendment of the latter that they looked up to the Prince of Wales. The period was fast approaching when a separate establishment was to be formed for the Prince, commensurate to his rank as the heirapparent to the Crown; and the uncontrolled command of an income adequate to the support and dignity of that exalted station was looked forward to as the event which would enable them to enrich themselves, and this they well knew could be effected in proportion as they administered to the gratification of his governing passions. It was, therefore, a part of their plan to entangle him in nets, from which he could not extricate himself without their assistance; they became the confidants of his actions, the depositaries of his secrets; and thus he insensibly fell into their power, which they knew how to wield to their advantage whenever the opportunity presented itself.

The Prince of Wales was indebted to Nature for a fine and handsome person; to art for a graceful exterior, and the most polished manners. His accomplishments were of the first order, but his flatterers were incessantly employed to make him

believe that they were much greater than they really were. They inspired him with the belief that, in regard to female favours, he had only to ask and to receive; and it must be acknowledged that a great number of the blooming women, who by their beauty adorned the court of his mother, required little or no persuasion to concede to his wishes; they even appeared to be vain of the honour of being thought in possession of such personal attractions as to captivate the affections of such a prince, and so far from repelling him in his advances, they encouraged him-in many instances anticipated him-and in all gloried in their conquest. With every fresh amour his appetite appeared to be sharpened—with the possession of each object his self-opinion and his natural inconstancy increased. Like the bee, he roamed from flower to flower, sipped the honey, but never visited that flower again. That these amours often led him into some serious scrapes, may be easily imagined; in many instances he had to contend with the jealousy of the husband, or the wounded honour of the brother, or, perhaps, what was still more dangerous, and more liable to lead to an exposure, the envy and hate of other females, who were aspiring to his affections, and who, consequently, could not endure the triumph of a rival. The following is one of those cases in which he was extricated by the mere presence of mind of one of his confidential associates who resided in the palace:

One of the most celebrated beauties of the British court at this time was Mrs. M—, whose husband is still living, and who enjoyed a situation in the household, with apartments in the palace as his residence. His avocations frequently required his personal attendance in town, and it was during these temporary visits that the Prince succeeded in ingratiating himself in the good opinion of his angelic wife; but it happened that one of those events took place which the imps of mischief are sometimes so industriously and provokingly employed in bringing about for the purpose of marring the happiness of human beings, when it is the least expected by them. Mr. M had on one occasion expressed his determination to remain in town during the night, as he did not expect that his business could be completed so as to admit of his return during the day. As might be expected, the advantage of this opportunity was

not to be lost; it was most anxiously embraced by both parties, and the sleeping apartment of the Prince was on that night to be tenantless. It happened, however, that the business of Mr. M———— was finished sooner than he expected; and as the hour of midnight struck from the tower of the palace, he was heard knocking at the outer door of his apartments in the court-yard. Consternation filled the breasts of the hitherto happy lovers-to escape out of the room was impossible; a detection would be the inevitable ruin of one of the parties, and the indelible disgrace of the other. In this emergency no other resource was left but concealment in a small adjoining room, but then the confinement would continue the whole of the night, and the escape in the morning, when the whole of the household would be in motion, could not be expected to be accomplished without a discovery. But there was no alternative; the Prince slipped on his clothes, and hurried into the adjoining room. He was, however, rescued from his distressing situation by the address of Mr. Cholmondely, who in this amour was the confidant of the Prince, and who, on seeing Mr. M— knocking at the door of his apartments, hurried towards him, and addressing him, said, 'My dear M, I am truly rejoiced at your return; something rather of an unpleasant nature has happened to the Prince, and he commanded me to desire your attendance in my apartments immediately on your return. Accompany me, therefore, thither without delay, and I will hasten to apprize the Prince that you are in attendance.' There was nothing by any means improbable in the Prince being in some dilemma, as it was by no means a case of rarity, and Mr. M therefore most willingly accompanied Mr. Cholmondely to his apartments, where he was politely invited to repose himself until Mr. C. went in search of the Prince. The sequel may be easily foreseen; Mr. Cholmondely hastened to the apartments of Mr. M, liberated the Royal lover from his confinement, and hastening back to Mr. M—, he informed him that the Prince had retired to rest; and on the following morning Mr. M was informed that the business

had been arranged without his interference.

During the earlier years of the Prince of Wales, his passions were vehement, and his temper unmanageable; but his gene

rosity was unbounded, and his faults appeared to be those which observation and experience would materially alter. To literature or to science he was not, however, much attached; and his amusements were chiefly those which unfortunately encouraged expensive habits and dangerous associations. Yet on the Prince of Wales the hopes of the nation were centered; and, habitually kind and indulgent towards their rulers, the English viewed, with a favourable eye, the follies of his youth, and predicted a maturity of great and generous principles. The first event, however, which peculiarly attracted public attention, and which occurred prior to the Prince having attained his majority, tended, in some measure, to alter public opinion. On entering upon that subject a great degree of delicacy is required in the relation, not only in regard to the illustrious subject of these memoirs, but also as far as it respects the fame of one, whose beauty, whose talents, and whose misfortunes, cannot fail to interest every susceptible mind in her favour. There are few of our readers who have not heard or read of the lovely, beautiful, and in many respects highly-talented Mrs. Mary Robinson. This lady was the wife of a careless, neglectful, and profligate young man, who left her, with her fascinating, mental, and personal attractions, exposed to the gaze and blandishments of libertine rank and fashion. A separation had taken place between them; and on an introduction to Garrick and Sheridan, she was encouraged to adopt the stage as the means of her future subsistence. She accordingly came out at Drury-lane Theatre, in the character of Juliet, in which she was eminently successful, and ultimately obtained an engagement, at a high salary, to enact the principal characters in tragedy and comedy.

At the period when Mrs. Robinson first attracted the attention of the Prince of Wales, she was in the twenty-first, and his Royal Highness in the nineteenth year of his age. She has herself left us the history of her intercourse with the Prince, written at a season when the heart deals with sincerity—in a season of sickness and dejection; when the gay prospects of her early life had vanished from her eyes, and nothing remained for her but an existence, struggling with personal inconvenience, debility of frame, and unavailing regrets. The narra