ribbons and filling snuff-boxes. To grant her
a pension on the civil list would have been an act
of judicious liberality honourable to the Court.
If this was impracticable, the next best thing was
to let her alone. That the king and queen meant
her nothing but kindness, we do not in the least doubt.
But their kindness was the kindness of persons raised
high above the mass of mankind, accustomed to be addressed
with profound deference, accustomed to see all who
approach them mortified by their coldness and elated
by their smiles. They fancied that to be noticed
by them, to be near them, to serve them, was in itself
a kind of happiness ; and that Frances Burney ought
to be full of gratitude for being permitted to purchase,
by the surrender of health, wealth, freedom, domestic
affection and literary fame, the privilege of standing
behind a royal chair and holding a pair of royal gloves.
And who can blame them ? Who can wonder that
princes should be under such a delusion when they
are encouraged in it by the very persons who suffer
from it most cruelly ? Was it to be expected
that George iii. and Queen Charlotte should understand
the interest of Frances Burney better, or promote
it with more zeal, than herself and her father ?
No deception was practised. The conditions of
the house of bondage were set forth with all simplicity.
The hook was presented without a bait ; the net was
spread in sight of the bird, and the naked hook was
greedily swallowed, and the silly bird made haste
to entangle herself in the net.
It is not strange indeed that an invitation to Court
should have caused a fluttering in the bosom of an
inexperienced woman. But it was the duty of
the parent to watch over the child, and to show her,
that on one side were only infantine vanities and
chimerical hopes, on the other, liberty, peace of mind,
affluence, social enjoyments, honourable distinctions.
Strange to say, the only hesitation was on the part
of Frances. Dr. Burney was transported out of
himself with delight. Not such are the raptures
of a Circassian father who has sold his pretty daughter
well to a Turkish slave merchant. Yet Dr. Burney
was an amiable man a man of good abilities, a man
who had seen much of the world. But he seems
to have thought that going to Court was like going
to heaven ; that to see princes and princesses was
a kind of beatific vision ; that the exquisite felicity
enjoyed by royal persons Was not confined to themselves,
but was communicated by some mysterious efflux or
reflection to all who were suffered to stand at their
toilettes or to bear their trains. He overruled
all his daughter’s objections, and himself escorted
her to prison. The door closed. The key
was turned. She, looking back with tender regret
on all she had left, and forward with anxiety and
terror to the new life On which she was entering,
was unable to speak or stand; and he went on his way
homeward rejoicing in her marvellous prosperity.
