KEW IN FAVOUR 69 



spoke well of her behind her back : " The Bernan 

 bin reely agribble ! " This " Cerbera," whatever 

 her faults, had the virtue of devotion to her life- 

 long mistress, and could not understand living 

 by choice out of sunshine of Court favour. She 

 tempted Miss Burney with the dazzling prospect 

 of her own post in reversion. But the novelist 

 was sick of her gilded cage. With trembling 

 knees, after long hesitation, as if it were a 

 crime, in the form of a petition she offered her 

 resignation, not over-graciously received. The 

 Queen proposed a six weeks' holiday, a change 

 of air. When this was declined, the Schwellen- 

 berg raged against Miss Burney and her father 

 as almost guilty of treason. "I am sure she 

 would have gladly confined us both in the 

 Bastille, had England such a misery, as a fit 

 place to bring us to ourselves from a daring so 

 outrageous to imperial wishes." 



She held on some months longer to let the 

 Queen find a successor, secured in the person of 

 a Hanoverian pastor's daughter, Mdlle. Jacobi, 

 who, for sign of family poverty, brought a niece 

 with her in the disguise of maid. Miss Burney's 

 last King's birthday ball under the royal roof was 

 marked by a visit to Mrs. Schwellenberg's room 



