the overwhelming reign and sway of Bonaparte, he was again appointed commander in chief of his Prussian Majesty's forces. During this time, at the battle of Auerstadt, after exertions which called forth even the acknowledgments of the enemy, he was wounded by a cannon ball in the forehead, by which he lost his eye-sight, and was carried off the field of battle.

He was at first taken to Brunswick; but the rapid advances of the French army compelled him to seek refuge in the Danish territory of Altona, and for a short time he lived retired under the assumed title of Count Werdtheim.

The sudden and overwhelming reverses of fortune by which the sovereignty of the house of Brunswick was declared to be dissolved, preyed so keenly on the heart of this brave man, and so aggravated the nature of his wound, that he could no longer sustain the weight of his affliction, but died on the 10th of November, only a few days prior to the triumphant entry of the French into the city of Hamburgh.

From the moment he received the wound to the day of his death, this valiant Prince was utterly incapable of observing what passed. He was thus providentially saved the pain of knowing the full extent of those calamities which befel his conquered country. His son, the Duke of Brunswick Oels, arrived at his father's house the very day after his death. His horses were disposed of by public auction, as also were his jewels and

what other valuable effects he left behind him, which had escaped the hands of the invaders.

On the 12th of the month his body was opened and embalmed. On opening the skull it was discovered, that, had no other cause operated to take away life, the wound in his head was, from the first, mortal. His once noble and high spirited heart was deposited in a silver box, and his remains, in the full regimentals of the Brunswick dragoons, with boots and spurs, a large Prussian cocked hat, with the star on his left breast, and the British Order of the Garter, lay in state till the evening of the 18th in a plain coffin, covered with black velvet.

The states of Brunswick sent an estaffette to Napoleon Bonaparte, requesting that the remains of the Duke might be deposited in the family vault; when the following brutal, but perfectly characteristic answer was returned: "Tell," said the inhuman conqueror, "the Duke of Brunswick, that I would rather cede Belgium, I would rather renounce the crown of Italy, than allow him, or any of his sons ever again to set foot within the Brunswick territory: let him take his money and jewels, and be gone to England!"

Such was the insolent conduct of Bonaparte, now himself a captive, and complaining of the cruelty and severity of his captors!

It was the wish of Duke Charles to be buried wherever he might happen to fall.

The successor of this Prince, not more fortu

nate than himself, was literally driven from his native country, to seek an asylum at the court of his royal brother-in-law, in this country. By orders of the late King, apartments in Hampton Court Palace were prepared for his reception.

Frederick Augustus, the next brother of the Duke of Brunswick, likewise distinguished himself as a soldier and commander; and several interesting anecdotes of his skill and bravery are recorded by his biographer. He fought under Frederick III. King of Prussia, as also did the Duke's second brother, Prince William Adolphus.

Prince Albert Henry, the third brother, was slain at the age of eighteen, on the 20th of July, 1761, in a skirmish with a body of French troops. Duke Charles's third daughter, Elizabeth Christina Ulrica, was married to Frederick IV. King of Prussia, who became the father of her late Royal Highness the Duchess of York.

CHAPTER 11.

HAVING thus briefly noticed some of the leading particulars in the lives of her Majesty's immediate ancestors, I may proceed, more directly, to her Majesty's own personal history.

The gaiety and gallantry of her father's court have already been noticed. She was born on the 17th of May, 1768, and was educated chiefly under

the immediate eye of her mother. At a very early age, she was introduced into all the circles of fashionable life; but it has been observed that the majority of her Serene Highness's female associates were persons advanced in age, whose formality and sedateness but ill suited the natural vivacity of her temper.

Pride never, at any time, appeared to have a seat in her breast. Indeed this vice was not indulged at a court which was almost proverbial for its hospitality; and which might be characterized rather by its openness and generosity, and a freedom of manners approaching to levity, than by any flagrant demonstrations of licentiousness.

What, in this country, would be considered highly derogatory to the character of a princess of the blood royal, was indulged as a pleasing and an innocent exercise of domestic condescension at the court of the Duke of Brunswick: for there it was common with her Serene Highness frequently to converse with her domestic attendants, by the humblest of whom, as well as by persons of every rank in her native country, she was greatly be loved.

That unhappy woman, the late Lady Douglas, whose horrid calumnies had once nearly proved fatal to the life and happiness of the royal subject of these Memoirs, had the audacity to assert that her Royal Highness was grossly ignorant, coarse, and uneducated. This was a falsehood and a slander to be surpassed only by those atrocious charges of a criminal nature which had well nigh

raised her ladyship to a situation in the pillory. Her Serene Highness, the Princess of Brunswick, received an education infinitely superior to her base calumniator's, and every way befitting her exalted station in life.

It is not necessary to enter into any minute details respecting her Majesty's course of early education it is sufficient to observe, that there was no branch of human learning, nor any accomplishment, useful or ornamental, and suitable to the education of a German princess, into which she was not properly initiated. Her taste, how ever, does not appear to have led her particularly to the cultivation of literature or the arts; except, indeed, of the most fascinating and enchanting science of music, of which her Majesty is passionately fond, and in which she is known to be a considerable proficient, particularly on the harpsichord.

In her early life she devoted much of her time in the indulgence of the harmless recreations of her native country, and in various mechanical pursuits, in which she manifested great ingenuity. Toys, trinkets of various kinds, lockets, and ornaments in an amusing variety, have been made by her.

Her great beauty of person, and 'perfect affabi lity of manners, procured her repeated instances of marked respect whenever she chose to appear in public, which she did almost every day. These repeated tokens of esteem and regard from persons very much below her Serene Highness in life, were frequently acknowledged by that frankness