r Peers,
Peeresses, and Members of Parliament, Generals, Admirals, and
Mayors, with their wives. The ladies of position wear, almost to
the extent of a uniform, a nodding head-dress of ostrich feathers
with diamonds, and gowns of white satin embroidered in gold or
silver, on which, owing to the heat, dribbles of wax from the
chandeliers occasionally fall.

The Guards' bands play, and attendants rush about in blue and gold
lace.]

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

The Queen, the Regent's mother, sits not here;
Wanting, too, are his sisters, I perceive;
And it is well. With the distempered King
Immured at Windsor, sore distraught or dying,
It borders nigh on indecency
In their regard, that this loud feast is kept,
A thought not strange to many, as I read,
Even of those gathered here.

SPIRIT IRONIC

My dear phantom and crony, the gloom upon their faces is due rather
to their having borrowed those diamonds at eleven per cent than to
their loyalty to a suffering monarch! But let us test the feeling.
I'll spread a report.

[He calls up the SPIRIT OF RUMOUR, who scatters whispers through
the assemblage.]

A GUEST [to his neighbour]

Have you heard this report--that the King is dead?

ANOTHER GUEST

It has just reached me from the other side. Can it be true?

THIRD GUEST

I think it probable. He has been very ill all week.

PRINCE REGENT

Dead? Then my fete is spoilt, by God!

SHERIDAN

Long live the King! [He holds up his glass and bows to the Regent.]

MARCHIONESS OF HERTFORD [the new favourite, to the Regent]

The news is more natural than the moment of it! It is too cruel to
you that it should happen now!

PRINCE REGENT

Damn me, though; can it be true? [He provisionally throws a regal
air into his countenance.]

DUCHESS OF YORK [on the Regent's left]

I hardly can believe it. This forenoon
He was reported mending.

DUCHESS OF ANGOULEME [on the Regent's right]

On this side
They are asserting that the news is false--
That Buonaparte's child, the "King of Rome,"
Is dead, and not your royal father, sire.

PRINCE REGENT

That's mighty fortunate! Had it been true,
I should have been abused by all the world--
The Queen the keenest of the chorus, too--
Though I have been postponing this pledg