t an
asthma; open the window:' then she added, '_Pray!_' That was her last
word. As the Princess Emily began to read some prayers, the sufferer
breathed her last sigh. The Princess Caroline held a looking-glass to
her lips, and finding there was no damp on it, said, ''Tis over!' Yet
she shed not one tear upon the arrival of that event, the prospect of
which had cost her so many heartrending sobs.

The king kissed the lifeless face and hands of his often-injured wife,
and then retired to his own apartment, ordering that a page should sit
up with him for that and several other nights, for his Majesty was
afraid of apparitions, and feared to be left alone. He caused himself,
however, to be buried by the side of his queen, in Henry VII.'s chapel,
and ordered that one side of his coffin and of hers should be withdrawn;
and in that state the two coffins were discovered not many years ago.

With the death of Queen Caroline, Lord Hervey's life, as to court, was
changed. He was afterwards made lord privy seal, and had consequently to
enter the political world, with the disadvantage of knowing that much
was expected from a man of so high a reputation for wit and learning. He
was violently opposed by Pelham, Duke of Newcastle, who had been adverse
to his entering the ministry, and since, with Walpole's favour, it was
impossible to injure him by fair means, it was resolved to oppose Lord
Hervey by foul ones. One evening, when he was to speak, a party of
fashionable Amazons, with two duchesses--her grace of Queensberry and
her grace of Ancaster--at their head, stormed the House of Lords and
disturbed the debate with noisy laughter and sneers. Poor Lord Hervey
was completely daunted, and spoke miserably. After Sir Robert Walpole's
fall Lord Hervey retired. The following letter from him to Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu fully describes his position and circumstances:--

'I must now,' he writes to her, 'since you take so friendly a part in
what concerns me, give you a short account of my natural and political
health; and when I say I am still alive, and still privy seal, it is all
I can say for the pleasure of one or the honour of the other; for since
Lord Orford's retiring, as I am too proud to offer my service and
friendship where I am not sure they will be accepted of, and too
inconsiderable to have those advances made to me (though I never forgot
or failed to return any obligation I ever received), so I remain as
illustrious a nothing