The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 226: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

=_ eS SSeS ST SS i a ce a saaaenasety X rounded her at her father’s Court. At times the TRE MYSTERInG. 218 Joyous in its sweet and expressive music was that voice, the accents of which im tenderness to expression of those eyes could become melting and tender,—but with a soft and delicate voluptuous- ness, and not with a coarse and meretricious licentiousness. Her eye-brows were not broadly defined: but they were sufficiently marked to prevent the general portraiture from being spoilt by any positive deficiency on that score. Her lips were somewhat full—of a lively red— and with a dewy moisture constantly upon them. There was something luscious in their appearance; and while slightly pouting, they were far from coarse. The expression of the mouth would have been perhaps sensuous, had not a smile of the most fascinating amiability been constantly playing upon it,—at times scarcely perceptible, though still lin- gering in girlish coyness there—at others more expansive in its unaffected sweetness and winning attraction. Then the teeth were as white, and as perfect, and as pure as two strings of pearls; and the breath was as fragrant as that of the early Spring sephyr passing over the parterres of nascent flowers. Her neck was not actually short, but wanted the graceful arching to render it beautiful and the statuesque carriage to make it dignified. Its delicate fairness was however a counterbalance for the deficiencies just mentioned ;—and then the bust of the Princess was superb beyond the cavil of an honest and impartial criticiam. The bosoms were fall—plump—well divided—and of stainless white- ness,—rich in the mature luxuriance of woman- hood’s grandest charm, but not protuberant enough to be pronounced matron-like. On the contrary, the whole aspect of the Princess wore an air of virgin freshness and wholesome health which con- trasted favourably and strikingly with the appear- ance of some of the pale, sickly, and faded beauties of the English fashionable world,—beauties that “came out” ab sixteen and lost all their bloom in the dissipation of four or five London winters—thus looking already old, and certainly passee at one- and-twenty! But here was this Princess of four years elder still, retaining all the first freshness of youth unimpaired—with a natural glow upon her cheeks —a elasticity of form—and a complexion that was capable of standing the test of daylight after having been pronounced lovely in the gor- geous saloons flooded with lustre. The Princess was of middling stature—but of sufficient height for real womanly dignity. But in that stiffness and starchness which make Courtiers and Court ladies resemble animated statues, her Royal Highness was certainly deficient. All her motions ‘and attitudes were accompanied with the unstudied grace so charmingly characteristic of childhood : the tutelage of a Court Master of the Ceremonies and the lessons of the dancing-master were never apparent in the carriage, gait, and movements of Caroline of Brunswick. And in unison.with this natural ease which thus adhered to her, and which rendered her manners as be- witching as her disposition was gay, her clear soft voice sounded harmoniously and joyously as the melody of a May morning when all nature is putting wp its hymn of thankegiving and exuitation to the almighty Creator,—that hymn which is conveyed in the song of the bird, the hum of the insect, the rutting of the leares, and the rippling of the silver her own sonorous native language, or set forth all the harmonious cadences of that charming French tongue in which she loved to shape and give utter- ance to her thoughts. The figure of the Princess was graceful and sym- metrical : her hands and feet were small—her an- kles well turned. Though scrupulously cleanly and nice in her person, she detested the frippery of gorgeous apparel and delighted in plain attire. Having no ambition as a princess and no vanity as &@ woman, she remained as trae to her own inge- nuous, unsophisticated, and artless nature as the training she had experienced would permit. She was in all respects a true-hearted, well-meaning, and amiable creature—one who would have shone with all the decorations of domestic virtues had she been placed in a humbler sphere, and whom it was a sin and a cruelty to shackle with the ice-chains of Courtly ceremony and restrain with the galling manacles of fashionable formalities. A cottage and not a throne should have been her portion: a worthy and unambitious man and not a prince should have been her partner in this life. In her nature were all the noblest elements of woman’s character—in her disposition were all the most amiable features and in her manners all the most endearing traits that can possibly adorn her sex! Such was the Princess Caroline of Brunswick. And now we find her decked out in the costliest apparel—with plumage waving over her brow and diamonds shining upon her hair—with the purest pearls around her still whiter neck and more stain- less bosom—and attended by a courtier the prim stiffness and habitual starchness of whose appear- ance and manner constituted as it were an addi- tional chain to imprison her mind within the sphere of cold formality and solemn ceremoniousness. Nevertheless—though she felt ill at ease and was naturally in a flutter of suspense and anxiety to behold the man whom she was to receive as a husband—she could not restrain herself from con- versing with the unaffected frankness that was habitual to her. “I regret, that your Roya) Highness should not have been more favourably impressed with the manner and bearing of her most gracious M3- jesty,” said the courtier, in comment upon one of the remarks which the Princess had just made. “Well, my dear Lord Malmesbary,” exclaimed Caroline, with a smile of ill-subdued archness, “you will yourself admit the appearance of such a stately dame, so prim and awe-inspiring ——” “ May it please your Royal Highness,” inter- rupted the Earl of Malmesbury, with a slow, mea- sured, and ceremonial bow,—“I am bound to hint to your Royal Highness in the most manner in the world, and yet with a profound seriousness, upon the inconvenience—I will not say impropriety—of applying the word dear to me. And however great the honour-——” “Oh! pray do not tease mo now with a homily, my lord,” cried the Princess, somewhat pettishly : then, immediately afterwards bursting into a merry laugh, she said in her joyous tones, “But where can the harm y be—since your lordship is quite old enough to be my father ” * This observation in itself savours of an incon- ' eideratences which I should denominate rudencas AUC DOO SS