e presence
of some mistress of the {107} King or prince. The carriage reached
London about ten o'clock. It had been driven at full gallop, the poor
princess writhing and screaming all the time, and the prince scolding
at her and telling her it was nonsense to cry and groan about pain
which would so soon be over. When they got to St. James's Palace there
were naturally no preparations made for a lying-in. The prince and
Lady Archibald Hamilton set to work to get some things in readiness,
and found they had to send round the neighborhood to collect some of
the most necessary appliances for such an occasion. So pitifully
unprovided was the palace that no clean sheets could be found, and the
prince and his mistress put the princess to bed between two
table-cloths. At a quarter before eleven the birth took place. A tiny
baby was born; "a little rat of a girl," Lord Hervey says, "about the
bigness of a good large tooth-pick." The little rat of a girl grew up,
however, to be a handsome woman. She was seen by John Wilson Croker in
1809 and had still the remains of beauty. The Lords of the Council had
been hurriedly sent for to be present at the birth; but the event was
so sudden and so unexpected that only Lord Wilmington, the President of
the Council, and Lord Godolphin, the Privy Seal, arrived in time to be
able to testify that no warming-pan operation was accomplished.

The unsuspecting King and Queen had gone to bed, according to their
usual quiet custom, at eleven o'clock. Their feelings, as a certain
class of writers are in the habit of saying, may be more easily
imagined than described when they were roused from sleep about two in
the morning by the couriers, who came to tell them that the princess
had become the mother of a girl, and that the prince and princess were
at St. James's Palace, London. There was racing and chasing. Within
half an hour the Queen was on the road to London with the two eldest
princesses, Lord Hervey, and others. The Queen comported herself with
some patience and dignity when she saw the prince and princess. The
child was shown to her. {108} No clothes had yet been found for it but
some napkins and an old red cloak. "The good God bless you, poor
little creature," said the Queen in French; "you have come into a very
disagreeable world!"

[Sidenote: 1737--Applying a precedent]

The King and Queen consented to become the godfather and godmother of
the poor little creature who ha