A Georgian Pageant

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Frank Frankfort Moore. A Georgian Pageant

A Georgian Pageant

Table of Contents

THE WRITER'S APOLOGY

THE MONARCH OF THE PAGEANT

A COMEDY IN ST. MARTIN'S STREET

A TRAGEDY IN THE HAYMARKET

THE FATAL GIFT

THE FÊTE-CHAMPÊTRE

THE PLOT OF A LADY NOVELIST

TRAGEDY WITH A TWINKLE

THE BEST COMEDY OF THE CENTURY

THE JESSAMY BRIDE

A PERSONAL NOTE

THE AMAZING ELOPEMENT

THE AMAZING DUELS

A MELODRAMA AT COVENT GARDEN

THE COMEDY AT DOWNING STREET

THE END

Отрывок из книги

Frank Frankfort Moore

Published by Good Press, 2019

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“My poor Royal Mistress!” she writes. “Never can I forget her countenance—pale, ghastly pale she looked … her whole frame was disordered, yet she was still and quiet. And the poor King is dreadfully uneasy about her. Nothing was the matter with himself, he affirmed, except nervousness on her account. He insisted on having a bed made up for himself in her dressing-room in order that he might be at hand should she become worse through the night. He had given orders that Miss Goldsworthy was to remain with her; but it seemed that he had no great confidence in the vigilance of any one but himself, for some hours after the Queen had retired he appeared before the eyes of the horrified lady-in-waiting, at the door, bearing a lighted candle. He opened the bed curtains and satisfied himself that his dread of her being carried out of the palace was unfounded; but he did not leave the room for another half-hour, and the terror of the scene completely overwhelmed the unhappy lady.”

Truly little Miss Burney earned her wages at this time. The dilapidated palace was only rendered habitable by the importation of a cartload of sandbags, which were as strategically distributed for the exclusion of the draughts as if they were the usual defensive supply of a siege. But even this ingenious device failed to neutralise the Arctic rigours of the place. The providing of carpets for some of the bare floors of the bedrooms and passages was a startling innovation; but eventually it was carried out. An occasional set of curtains also was smuggled into this frozen fairy palace, and a sofa came now and again.

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