CHARACTER OF THE DECEASED QUEEN. 239 



had gradually augmented the group. The dark old female 

 chuckled like a witch, when her charms work well, and with a 

 sarcastic leer, continued : " Yes, my masters, a weighty ob- 

 ligation, truly, you were under to our late most excellent 

 sovereign, and with reason do you pay her memory all becoming 

 deference. Hearken to her royal virtues ; innocent as a lamb, 

 gentle as a dove, see how her acts bespoke her. Amiable lady ! 

 no sooner had she arrived at reigning age, than inspired with 

 noble jealousy, she, with her own hands, murdered her sister 

 princesses. Then how laudably did she live in pompous state, 

 surrounded by your lordships and the rest of her courtly 

 retinue, while we, her people, supported her by the sweat of 

 our brows ! How gratefully did she repay our labour by orders, 

 not for pensions, but for executions, as soon as age should 

 render us incapable of toil ! How dignified her exemption from 

 all cares of government, concerning which she would have 

 thought it the lowest degradation to have troubled her royal 

 head ! Above all, my noble masters, how tender and disinterested 

 were the favour and protection extended to yourselves, so long as 

 you could minister to her delight; how humane to spare your 

 wounded feelings by giving you up to slaughter, as assuredly 

 she would have done, so soon as her pleasure in you was at an 

 end ! Such were the brilliant qualities, such the noble deeds 

 of her majesty departed, and such (while our queens continue 

 to be made after one model) will be the qualities and doings 

 of her majesty forth-coming. What can you desire better?' 



p 2 



