Come, little Firebrand,' exclaimed the Queen, and as I knelt to kiss
her hand she threw her arms round me in an affectionate embrace, and
the Prince of Wales claimed me as an old acquaintance, saluted me,
and laughed, as he welcomed me to their court of waifs and strays,
cast up one by one by the tide.
His little sister, brought by the faithful Lady Morton in the
disguise of a beggar boy, had been the last thus to arrive. A very
lovely child she was, and Prince Charles made every one laugh by
taking her on his knee and calling her Piers the beggar boy, when she
pointed to her white frock, called herself 'Pincess, pincess, not
beggar boy,' and when he persisted, went into a little rage and
pulled his black curls.
My poor Queen, whom I had left in the pride and mature bloom of
beauty, was sadly changed; she looked thin and worn, and was
altogether the brown old French-woman; but she was still as lively
and vivacious, and full of arch kindness as ever, a true daughter of
the Grand Monarque, whose spirits no disasters could break. When the
little one became too noisy, she playfully ordered off both the
children, as she called them, and bade me sit down on the footstool
before her couch, and tell her what I had been doing to put
intendants, cardinals and Queens themselves into commotion. The
little Lady Henrietta was carried off by one of the attendants, but
the Prince would not go; he resumed his former position, saying that
he was quite sure that Madame de Bellaise was in need of an English
counsel to plead her cause.
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