lady is down at Ford-house, cried the good[8] woman, who was a little deaf, concluding they had called to her to know.  The gardiner knew it was in vain to explain his distress to her, and thought that if the poor gentleman was really mad, his master the general would be the properest person to know how to manage him.  Accordingly turning to the left, he led the prince along the banks of the river, which glittered through the opening fallows, while on the other hand a wilderness of shrubs climbed up the pendent cliffs of chalk, and contrasted with the verdant meads and fields of corn beyond the stream.  The prince, insensible to such enchanting scenes, galloped wildly along, keeping the poor gardiner on a round trot, till they were stopped by a lonely[9] tomb, surrounded by cypress, yews, and willows, that seemed the monument of some adventurous youth who had been lost in tempting the current, and might have suited the gallant and daring Leander.  Here Mi Li first had presence of mind to recollect the little English he knew, and eagerly asked the gardiner whose tomb he beheld before him.  It is nobody’s—­before he could proceed, the prince interrupted him, And will it never be any body’s?—­Oh! thought the gardiner, now there is no longer any doubt of his phrenzy—­and perceiving his master and the family approaching towards them, he endeavoured to get the start, but the prince, much younger, and borne too on the wings of love, set out full speed the moment he saw the company, and particularly a young damsel with them.  Running almost breathless up to lady Ailesbury, and seizing miss Campbell’s hand—­he cried, Who she? who she?  Lady Ailesbury screamed, the young maiden squalled, the general, cool but offended, rushed between them, and if a prince could be collared, would have collared him—­Mi Li kept fast hold with one arm, but pointing to his prize with the other, and with the most eager and supplicating looks intreating for an answer, continued to exclaim, Who she? who she?  The general perceiving by his accent and manner that he was a foreigner, and rather tempted to laugh than be angry, replied with civil scorn, Why she is miss Caroline Campbell, daughter of lord William Campbell, his majesty’s late governor of Carolina—­Oh, Hih!  I now recollect thy words! cried Mi Li—­And so she became princess of China.

NOTES ON TALE V.

[Footnote 1:  There really was such a person..]

[Footnote 2:  The gentleman who discovered Otaheite, in company with Dr. Solander.]

[Footnote 3:  Lady Ailesbury’s.]

[Footnote 4:  At Park-place there is such a passage cut through a chalk-hill:  when dogs are in the middle, the light from the mouth makes their eyes appear in the manner here described.]

[Footnote 5:  Copeland, the gardiner, a very grave person.]

[Footnote 6:  Consequently they seem to have been larger.]