line was sent for, and Lord Hervey. The princess came in
time; Lord Hervey was a moment too late. The Queen asked in a low,
faint voice that the window might be opened, saying she felt an asthma.
Then she spoke the one word, "Pray." The Princess Emily began to read
some prayers, but had only got out a few words before the Queen
shuddered and died. The Princess Caroline held a looking-glass to the
Queen's lips, and, finding the surface undimmed, quietly said, "'Tis
over"; and, according to Lord Hervey, "said not one word more, nor as
yet shed one tear, on the arrival of a misfortune the dread of which
had cost her so many."

"Pray!" That was the last word the Queen ever spoke, All the wisdom of
the Court statesmen, all the proud, intellectual unbelief, all the
cynical contempt for the weaknesses of intellect which allow ignorant
people to believe their destiny linked with that of some other and
higher life--all that Bolingbroke, Chesterfield, Walpole, would have
taught and sworn oaths for--all was mocked by that one little word,
"pray," which came last from the lips of Queen Caroline. Bring saucy
Scepticism there; make her laugh at that!

The story would be incomplete if it were not added that while the
Queen's body was yet unburied the King came to Hervey and told him,
laughing and crying alternately, that he had just seen Horace Walpole,
the brother of Robert, and that Walpole was weeping for the Queen with
so bad a grace "that in the middle of my tears he forced me to burst
into laughter." Amid this explosion of tears and laughter the story of
the Queen's life comes fittingly to an end.

[Sidenote: 1737--Walpole strengthens his position]

The moment the breath was out of the Queen's body, {125} Walpole set
about a course of action which should strengthen his position as
Prime-minister of the King. At first his strong fear was that with the
life of the Queen had passed away his own principal hold upon the
confidence of George. He told Hervey that no one could know how often
he had failed utterly by argument and effort of his own to bring the
King to agree to some action which he considered absolutely necessary
for the good of the State, and how after he had given up the attempt in
mere despair the Queen had taken the matter in hand, and so managed the
King that his Majesty at last became persuaded that the whole idea was
his own original conception, and he bade her send for Walpole and
explain it to him, a