into the room, and Sir Sydney Smith was sitting very close to the Princess on the sofa; he (Cole) looked at Her Royal Highness, she caught his eye, and saw that he noticed the manner in which they were sitting together, they appeared both a little confused."

"R. Bidgood says also, in his deposition on the 6th of June, (for he was examined twice) "that it was early in 1802, when he first observed Sir Sydney Smith come to Montague House. He used to stay very late at night; he had seen him early in the morning there; about ten or eleven o'clock. He was at Sir John Douglas's, and was in the habit, as well as Sir John and Lady Douglas, of dining or having luncheon, or supping there every day. He saw Sir Sydney Smith, one day in 1802, in the Blue Room, about eleven o'clock in the morning, which was full two hours before they expected ever to see company. He asked the servants why they did not let him know that Sir Sydney Smith was there; the footmen told him, they had let no person in. There was a private door to the Park, by which he might have come in, if he had a key to it, and have got into the Blue Room, without any of the servants perceiving him. And in his second deposition, taken on the 3rd of July, he says he lived at Montague House when Sir Sydney Smith came. Her (the Princess's) manner with him appeared very familiar; she appeared very attentive to him, but he did not suspect any thing further. Mrs. Lisle says that the Princess at one time appeared to like

Sir John and Lady Douglas. "I have seen Sir Sydney Smith there very late in the evening, but not alone with the Princess, I have no reason to suspect he had a key of the Park gate; I never heard of any body being found wandering about at Blackheath."

66

Fanny Lloyd does not mention Sir Sydney Smith in her deposition.

Upon the whole of this evidence then, which is the whole that respects Sir Sydney Smith, in any of these depositions, (except some particular passages in Cole's evidence, which are so important as to require a very particular and distinct statement,) I would request Your Majesty to understand that, with respect to the fact of Sir Sydney Smith's visiting frequently at Montague House, both with Sir John and Lady Douglas, and without them; with respect to his being frequently there, at luncheon, dinner, and supper; and staying with the rest of the company, till twelve, or one o'clock, or even sometimes later, if these are some of the facts "which must give occasion to unfavourable interpretations, and must be credited till they are contradicted;" they are facts which I never can contradict, for they are perfectly true. And I trust it will imply the confession of no guilt, to admit that Sir Sydney Smith's conversation, his account of the various and extraordinary events, and heroic achievements in which he had been concerned, amused and interested me; and the circumstance. of his living so much with his friends, Sir John and Lady Douglas, in my neighbourhood ou

Blackheath, gave the opportunity of his increasing his acquaintance with me..

"It happened also, that about this time I fitted up, as Your Majesty may have observed, one of the rooms in my house, after the fashion of a Turkish tent. Sir Sydney furnished me with a pattern for it, in a drawing of the tent of Murad Bey, which he had brought over with him from Egypt. And he taught me how to draw Egyptian Arabesques, which were necessary for the ornaments of the ceiling; this may have occasioned, while that room was fitting up, several visits, and possibly some, though I do not recollect them, as early in the morning as Mr. Bidgood mentions. I believe also, that it has happened more than once, that walking with my ladies in the Park, we have met Sir Sydney Smith, and that he has come in with us, through the gate from the Park. My ladies may have gone up to take off their cloaks, or to dress, and have left me alone with him; and, at some one of these times, it may very possibly have happened that Mr. Cole, and Mr. Bidgood may have seen him, when he has not come through the waiting room, nor been let in by any of the footmen. But I solemnly declare to Your Majesty, that I have not the least idea or belief that he had a key of the gate into the Park, or that he ever entered in or passed out at that gate, except in company with myself and my ladies. As for the circumstance of my permitting him to be in the room alone with me; if suffering a man to be so alone, is evidence of guilt,

from whence the Commissioners can draw any unfavorable inference, I must leave them to draw it. For I cannot deny that it has happened, and happened frequently; not only with Sir Sydney Smith, but with many, many others; gentlemen who have visited me; tradesmen who have come to receive my orders; masters whom I have had to instruct me in painting, in music, in English, &c. that I have received them without any one being by. In short, I trust, I am not confessing a crime, for unquestionably it is a truth, that I never had an idea that there was any thing wrong, or objectionable, in thus see, ing men in the morning, and I confidently believe that Your Majesty will see nothing in it, from which any guilt can be inferred. I feel certain, that there is nothing immoral in the thing itself; and I have always understood, that it was per fectly customary and usual for ladies of the first rank, and the first character in the country, to receive the visits of gentlemen in a morning, though they might be themselves alone at the time. But if, in the opinions and fashions of this country, there should be more impropriety ascribed to it, than what it ever entered into my mind to conceive, I hope Your Majesty, and every candid mind, will make allowance for the different notions which my: foreign education, and foreign habits may have given me.

"But whatever character may belong to this practice, it is not a practice which commenced after my leaving Carlton House. While there, and from my first arrival in this country, I was

598

THE ROYAL WANDERER; OR,

accustomed, with the knowledge of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and without his ever having hinted to me the slightest disapprobation, to receive lessons from various masters, for my amusement, and improvement; I was attended by them frequently, from twelve o'clock till five in the afternoon :-Mr. Atwood for music, Mr. Geffadiere for English, Mr. Toufronelli for painting, Mr. Tutoye for imitating marble, Mr. Elwes for the harp. I saw them all alone; and, indeed, if I were to see them at all, I could do no otherwise than see them alone. Miss Garth, who was then subgoverness to my Daughter, lived, certainly, under the same roof with me, but she could not be spared from her duty and attendance on my Daughter. I desired her sometimes to come down stairs, and read to me during the time when I drew or painted, but my Lord Cholmondely informed me this could not be. I then requested that I might have one of my bedchamber women to live constantly at Carlton House, that I might have her at call whenever I wanted her; but I was answered that it was not customary, that the attendants of the Royal Family should live with them in town; so that request could not be complied with. But, independent of this, I never conceived that it was offensive to the fashions and manners of the country, to receive gentlemen who might call upon me in a morning, whether I had or had not any one with me; and it never occurred to me to think that there was either impropriety or