“Ci git une de qui la vertu
  Etait moins que la table encensee;
  On ne plaint point la femme abattue,
  Mais bien la table renversee.”

Which may be freely rendered: 

  “Here lies one who adulation
  By dinners more than virtues earn’d;
  Whose friends mourned not her reputation—­
  But her table—­overturned.”

Madame D’Arblay has recorded what took place between Mrs. Piozzi and herself on the occasion: 

Miss F. Burney to Mrs. Piozzi.

“Norbury Park, Aug. 10, 1784.

“When my wondering eyes first looked over the letter I received last night, my mind instantly dictated a high-spirited vindication of the consistency, integrity, and faithfulness of the friendship thus abruptly reproached and cast away.  But a sleepless night gave me leisure to recollect that you were ever as generous as precipitate, and that your own heart would do justice to mine, in the cooler judgment of future reflection.  Committing myself, therefore, to that period, I determined simply to assure you, that if my last letter hurt either you or Mr. Piozzi, I am no less sorry than surprised; and that if it offended you, I sincerely beg your pardon.

“Not to that time, however, can I wait to acknowledge the pain an accusation so unexpected has caused me, nor the heartfelt satisfaction with which I shall receive, when you are able to write it, a softer renewal of regard.

“May Heaven direct and bless you!

“F.B.

“N.B.  This is the sketch of the answer which F.B. most painfully wrote to the unmerited reproach of not sending cordial congratulations upon a marriage which she had uniformly, openly, and with deep and avowed affliction, thought wrong.”

Mrs. Piozzi to Miss Burney.

  “’Wellbeck Street, No. 33, Cavendish Square. 
  “’Friday, Aug. 13, 1784.

“’Give yourself no serious concern, sweetest Burney, All is well, and I am too happy myself to make a friend otherwise; quiet your kind heart immediately, and love my husband if you love his and your

“‘H.L.  PIOZZI.’

“N.B.  To this kind note, F.B. wrote the warmest and most affectionate and heartfelt reply; but never received another word!  And here and thus stopped a correspondence of six years of almost unequalled partiality, and fondness on her side; and affection, gratitude, admiration, and sincerity on that of F.B., who could only conjecture the cessation to be caused by the resentment of Piozzi, when informed of her constant opposition to the union.”

If F.B. thought it wrong, she knew it to be inevitable, and in the conviction that it was so, she and her father had connived at the secret preparations for it in the preceding May.