Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Henry Craik, ed. English Prose. 1916.
Vol. I. Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century
The Death of Queen Caroline
John, Lord Hervey (1696–1743)
From Memoirs of Reign of George II.
A
BOUT ten o’clock on Sunday night—the king being in bed and asleep on the floor at the foot of the Queen’s bed, and the Princess Emily in a couch-bed in a corner of the room—the Queen began to rattle in the throat; and, Mrs. Purcel giving the alarm that she was expiring, all in the room started up. Princess Caroline was sent for, and Lord Harvey, but before the last arrived the Queen was just dead. All she said before she died was “I have now got an asthma. Open the window.” Then she said “Pray.” Upon which the Princess Emily began to read some prayers, of which she scarce repeated ten words before the Queen expired. The Princess Caroline held a looking-glass to her lips, and finding there was not the least damp upon it, cried, “’Tis over!” and said not one word more, nor shed as yet one tear, on the arrival of a misfortune the dread of which had cost her so many.
END OF VOL. III.
