en so that I could see without being seen, and looked up the
lobby beyond the King's chamber; for in that direction, I knew, lay Her
Majesty's apartments. A couple of pages came first, very hastily, with
rods; and then immediately after them Her Majesty herself, hurrying as
fast as she could, scarce decently dressed, with a cloak flung over all,
with a hood. Behind her came two or three of her ladies. I saw the poor
woman's face very plain for a moment, since there was no one between me
and her; and even at that distance I could see her miserable agitation;
her brown face was all sallow and her mouth hung open. Then she whisked
after the pages through the door into the great antechamber that lay
beyond the bedroom. I went back again, to shut the door and listen at
the other; for I knew that the King's bed was close to it (though he was
not in it at this time, but still in the barber's chair where he had
been blooded); and presently I heard the poor soul begin to wail aloud.
I heard voices too, as if soothing her, for all the physicians were
there, and half a dozen others; but the wailing grew, as she saw, I
suppose, in what condition His Majesty was--(for he still seemed all
unconscious)--till she began to shriek. That was a terrible sound, for
she laughed and sobbed too, all at once, in a kind of fit. I could hear
the tone very plain through the door, though I could not hear what she
said; and the voices of Mr. King and others who endeavoured to quiet
her. Gradually the wailing and shrieking grew less as they forced her
away and out again; till I heard it, as she went back again to her own
apartments, die away in spasms. Poor soul indeed! she was nothing
accounted of in that Court, yet she loved the King very dearly in spite
of his neglect towards her. She could not even speak to him (I heard
afterwards), though he had spoken her name and asked for her, after his
first blooding.

* * * * *

Half an hour later--(in the meantime no one had come in to me, and I
could only walk up and down and listen as well as I could)--I heard
again the murmur of voices in the lobby, and steps coming swiftly down
from the private closet. Again I was in time at the door to see who it
was that went by; and it was the Duke of York, with my Lord Ailesbury
who had gone to fetch him from St. James'. He went by me so near that I
could hear his quick breathing from his run upstairs; and he had come in
such a hurry