direct to and from Bath without
stopping, and never forgave her.

Notwithstanding her predictions, the queen survived the fatal Wednesday.
Until this time no prelate had been called in to pray by her majesty,
nor to administer the Holy Communion and as people about the court began
to be scandalized by this omission, Sir Robert Walpole advised that the
Archbishop of Canterbury should be sent for: his opinion was couched in
the following terms, characteristic at once of the man, the times, and
the court:--

'Pray, madam,' he said to the Princess Emily, 'let this farce be played;
the archbishop will act it very well. You may bid him be as short as you
will: it will do the queen no hurt, no more than any good; and it will
satisfy all the wise and good fools, who will call us atheists if we
don't pretend to be as great fools as they are.'

Unhappily, Lord Hervey, who relates this anecdote, was himself an
unbeliever; yet the scoffing tone adopted by Sir Robert seems to have
shocked even him.

In consequence of this advice, Archbishop Potter prayed by the queen
morning and evening, the king always quitting the room when his grace
entered it. Her children, however, knelt by her bedside. Still the
whisperers who censured were unsatisfied--the concession was thrown
away. Why did not the queen receive the communion? Was it, as the world
believed, either 'that she had reasoned herself into a very low and cold
assent to Christianity?' or 'that she was heterodox?' or 'that the
archbishop refused to administer the sacrament until she should be
reconciled to her son?' Even Lord Hervey, who rarely left the
antechamber, has only by his silence proved that she did _not_ take the
communion. That antechamber was crowded with persons who, as the prelate
left the chamber of death, crowded around, eagerly asking, 'Has the
queen received?' 'Her majesty,' was the evasive reply, 'is in a heavenly
disposition:' the public were thus deceived. Among those who were near
the queen at this solemn hour was Dr. Butler, author of the 'Analogy.'
He had been made clerk of the closet, and became, after the queen's
death, Bishop of Bristol. He was in a remote living in Durham, when the
queen, remembering that it was long since she had heard of him, asked
the Archbishop of York 'whether Dr. Butler was dead?'--'No, madam,'
replied that prelate (Dr. Blackburn), 'but he is buried;' upon which she
had sent for him to court. Yet he was not courageous enough, it