LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE; For MARCH, 1811. A New Series. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES. The Seventeenth Number. FERDINAND VII. KING OF SPAIN, AND HIS SISTER, In our last, we gave a short account of the present dethroned King and Queen of Spain, whose melancholy history so immediately connects itself with, and is in fact, the foundation of the equally calamitous sufferings of their children, that it is difficult to divide our narrative, or separate their misfortunes. The disgrace and imprisonment of the royal children is a natural shoot from the present stock of misfortune. With respect to Prince Ferdinand, it is worthy of observation, that though educated in the most corrupt and effeminate court, and under a governor of desperate and atrocious wickedness (we mean the infamous Manuel Godoy), such was the natural excellence of his character, and the vigorous growth of his virtue, that he escaped all infection; that, in the midst of the worst examples, he became a Prince of the best promise in Europe, and attracted the esteem and love of the people whom he might one day expect to govern, at a time of life when he could have no possible influence in the administration of their affairs.-Sanguine in their hopes from the abundant promise of his youth, they paid him, by anticipation, the richest tribute which subjects have to bestow. The choice which the Spanish Cortes made of Ferdinand for their King, the imprisonment of that Prince in an obscure castle, in a remote province in France, the war now carrying on in Spain almost with the sole view of Ferdinand's restoration, are events so familiar to all our readers, that it would be tiresome to repeat them.— Suffice it to observe, that the connection of the cause of Spanish freedom with the restoration of the Bourbon dy nasty, in the person of Ferdinand, has been, we think (and perhaps with some propriety), the prevailing inducement with the British Government to embark largely in the affairs of that peninsula. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. HYMENEA IN SEARCH OF A HUSBAND. ON entering the hall of Sans Souci || Miss Wellwood, read the inscription on the House, Lord Castledowne made me pedestal, and you will learn the real design pause a little upon its marbled floor, that of this statue and its jewelled appendage of I might look around, and observe the Aurora.” superb embellishments of the walls and I obeyed; and found on approaching cleling. It was not the baronial trophies nearer to the pedestal that a festoon was of an old English warrior I beheld, but omitted on one of its sides; and in its the fantastic decorations of fashionable place was a white entablature with gold whim. The pride of martial fame was letters; the inscription was written in most absurdly mingled with the vanity of choice Italian, and to this effect:-" Her female charms; and exhibited an assem- Grace the Most Noble Louisa Augusta, blage of designs in sculptor and on canvas Duchess of Sans Souci, and Baroness of which nothing less than a self-deifying || Baton, of the most valiant and most victocoquet and an enamoured dotard could rious Kingdom of Prussia, is here sculptured have tolerated. In the centre of the floor in the character of the Goddess Aurora.stood a pedestal of beautiful porphyry, This Statue was executed by Guido Phicornuted with gold, from whence pended || diacci, at the command of her Majesty the festoons of Howe's stained so as to resemble || Queen of the Sicilies, who presented it to his the colours of nature. On this altar was Grace the Most Noble John Duke of Sans stationed a female figure, cut exquisitely Souci, and Baron of Baton, with the brilin parian marble; her attributes were those liant Star now on the head of Aurora, as of the Goddess Aurora; and indeed it an emblem of the Morning Star of his hap would have been difficult for me to mis-piness, namely, her Grace the Most Noble take it, for in the centre of the forehead blazed a star of real diamonds. "What an extraordinary ornament for a marble statue!" exclaimed I, turning to Lady Castledowne;"it is surely, though a splendid thing itself, a very absurd appendage to a Goddess of stone." Louisa Augusta, Duchess of Sans Souci, and Baroness of Baton." "Poor thing!" exclaimed I, in an involuntary tone of pity, when I had read this foolish record of vanity. Lord Castledowne laughed.—"Was that sigh and commiserating ejaculation meant "Truly absurd," returned her Lady- for the Duke or his Duchess? You cership; "but it is the fashionable taste to tainly cannot mean to insinuate that the put all just taste at defiance. Furniture, lady of this apotheosis, or the mortal she personal ornaments, all are to be as dis-blesses with her charms, can be an object cordant as possible; Grecian couches, of compassion." Egyptian tables, Chinese stools, French windows, all are mobbed together in the same house as the ne plus ultra of the ton; and for the lady who presides there, it is not surprising to see her with the boddice of Queen Elizabeth, the transparent garments of a Heathen Goddess, and the chastely braided hair of the Christian Madona,-caprice is the only rule in our pre-gay male voice directly behind me, and seut modes." But more than caprice is here," interrupted Lord Castledowne. "Pray, "I pity them both," replied I; "her for placing honour and happiness on such unstable grounds as the pleasures of riches and the adulation of the world; and him for having sacrificed his respectability to the blandishments of unfeeling vanity." "Can it be of the divine Duchess that this lady is now speaking?" deraanded a addressing itself to Lord Castledowue. I looked round, and beheld two gentlemen leaning on each other's arm, and close to our party. The one who spoke to Lord Castledowne was handsome in his person, but possessed that negligence of air and deportment which spoke the man of declared fashion; his voice was loud, clear, and animated; and he passed his eyes carelessly over my form from head to foot, as with a good-humoured laugh he waited for the Earl's reply.-Lord Castledowne smiled: "Sir Bingham Courtown does not shew by his apparel, at least, that he bas any just pretensions to the privileges of a father confessor; and therefore he must not be surprized if I do not suffer Miss Wellwood to shrive before his chair.” At the mention of my name, I was a little struck by perceiving that a sudden glow rushed over the face of the gay Baronet; I had never seen him before, and therefore could not guess the cause of his colouring. He drew nearer to me, and dropping the arm of the gentleman who leaned upon it, again addressed Lord Castledowne:-" Well, if your Lordship will not permit me to assume the honours of sacerdotal celibacy, will you dispense me an honour that is in your own power, and by presenting me to Miss Wellwood, make me the envy of every man in the theatre to-night?" "I cannot consent to be the author of so much evil," replied the Earl in the same spirit of lively badinage; "and therefore until you can assure me that I shall not be guilty of awakening the baneful passion of envy in every man's breast this evening, by introducing you to iny fair Hymenæa, I must decline your petition." "Allow me," interrupted the other gentleman, who had hitherto stood silent, though he regarded me with a yet more attentive eye than his friend; "allow me to share the introduction with my brother; and then, enjoying the same happiness with him, I can affirm that envy will be banished from at least one breast." I do not know how it was, but there was something so prepossessing in the manner with which this good-humoured accommodation to his brother's wish was pronounced, that I, almost unconsciously, curtseyed to him as he ceased to speak. The moment I had done so I felt that I had acted very gauche; and setting it down in my own mind that this elegant young man, and his fashionable brother, would take me for some aukward country cousin of Lady Castledowne's, with a profusion of blushes. which increased rather than diminished my apprehensions of being deemed an únpolished rustic, I received the introduction of Sir Bingham Courtown, and his brother Mr. Courtown. Sir Bingham immediately planted himself by my side; and learning from Lady Castledowne that I had never been before in Sans Souci House, with a no inconsiderable degree of wit and humour, as he led me through the hall, and along the various apartments and gallery which intervened between the grand entrance and the theatre, he pointed out and descanted on the mingled attributes of love and war and the drama scattered about in most grotesque but glittering profusion all over the building. The Duchess was the prime figure in every design; in one pannel she was Venus, with the Duke as Mars at her feet; they sat on a Grecian couch in an arbour of roses; and at the feet of Mars lay a map of the Rhine, a truncheon with a plan of the battle of Molwitz wrapped around it, and two or three large volumes on the ground, which were labelled with the words-The Works of Frederick the Great. "That picture," cried Sir Bingham, cost my Lord Duke five hundred guineas; and it is well worth the money if you will examine the bounty of the painter to his Grace Observe what a handsome pair of legs he has given to Duke Mars; we neither recognise in one or the other the spindle shank nor wooden support of the war-beaten original. It was the Duchess's move, I believe, out of doating tenderness to her husband's complexional charms, to have his face turned to her, and his back to the company, so we cannot judge what compliments the generous painter might not have paid to his martial features." "If the Duchess be as beautiful as that picture," observed Mr. Courtown," she must have no rival in the British court." "So I thought," replied Sir Bingham, until smiling gaily, and bowing to me, this moment." 66 I felt as if I had rather that this compli ment had been paid by his brother; and || the house I thanked my friends and his hardly aware of what influenced my taste. I coldly turned to Lady Castledowne, and in a whisper said that I did uot think the picture of the Duchess so very handsome. "We shall see the original in a few minutes," replied she; "and then you will judge." Grace, with as much composure as I could Issume, for the services I had received. But so distressed was I at the confusion I had occasioned, and so ashamed at having manifested such weakness on so comparatively trifling an occasion, that, having hastily declared my gratitude, I whispered to the Countess my desire to return home. "Impossible, my sweet young lady,” cried the Duke, who overheard me; “after what you have suffered, to share in the amusement my Augusta has prepared for me, I cannot consent that you shall go away without tasting the pleasures as well as the sains of Sans Souci Theatre. Resign yourself to remain, and I will promise you a balm for all your hurts this evening in the lively sallies of les corps dramatique of my charming Duchess!" Sir Bingham and Mr. Courtown added their entreaties that, as I seemed better, I would stay; and as Lord and Lady Castle We were now got into a prodigious crowd, who were pressing along the gallery to reach the thea re doors, which had just been thrown open. I felt myself so hurried away by the stream, that I was absolutely raised off my feet by the eager multitude, and should have been separated from my party in spite of all my struggles to the contrary, had not Sir Bingham, rather too familiarly perhaps, thrown his arm round my waist, and plucked down from my neck the elbow of a gentleman who, in pressing forward, negligent of whom he pushed against, almost suffocated me. I was nearly fainting when my gay champion brought me to the side of Lord and Lady Castle-down joined their persuasions, I determindowne; on reaching them, the pleasure of being again safe, and the hurry of my spirits, made me lose all command of myself, and half swooning, half hysterical, I burst into a violent fit of tears. The kind Countess folded me in her arms, and there was presently so great a bustle around our groupe that Lady Castledowne, afraid that my disorder would be increased, desired her Lord to open a door which she descried behind us. I was immediately taken within it, and Sir Bingham preventing any curous followers, i presently found myself, on raising my head from the bosom of the Countess, in a spledid apartment lying on a sofa. ed to shake off my embarrassment, and as politely as I could to yield to the kind solicitations of the Duke. His Grace cordially shook his old acquaintance, Castledowne, by the hand, and himself led the way by a back passage to the theatre." Our young invalid," said he, "must not again be exposed to the fashionable crowd in the gallery, who in those cases are as rude as the most vulgar; neither shall she endure the pressure in the public seats. Your party, my Lord, shall have the box my wife has built for the Prince of W; his Royal Highness does not honour us to-night with his presence, so an old friend and his welcome party,. A crowd was near me bes des my own shall occupy it to my infinite pleasure. I party, but they were of a differen descrip- must not interrupt her Grace now that she tion from them I had left in the gallery; is in her Green-room, but when the perthese were evidently domestics of the house.formance is over I know how delighted she All sorts of restoratives were presented to Ine; and when I turned to thank the Coun tess for her kind attention, my eyes met not only her amiable features, but the compassionate and anxious countenance of an old gentleman looking over her shoulder upon me. His silver hair, and numerous stars and ribbons, informed me that I had been brought into the presence of the master of will be at my arrangement." Lord Castledowne would have made some objection to our being placed in so distinguished a situation in a theatre to be filled with an audience of the first quality. "Shall we not cause jealousy amongst the public benches?" demanded his Lordship of the Duke. "There are many who have higher claims in precedence than an Irish Earl." "That may be, in the Court Calendar," replied the Duke; "but in the calendar of friendship, the old friend of Jack Gorget must ever be considered as first on the list with the Duke of Sans Souci." the fair Hymenea holdeth up her fan and The Baronet laughed at this, but, shak I did not hear the Earl's reply to this graceful response of the Duke's; but it hading his head, would not break his promised an effect on me not very favourable to the beautiful Duchess, who could have the heart, by her follies, to set so gracious a spirit in so contemptible a light. The Duke at this moment threw open a green baize door, studded with gilded nails in the form of the Prince of W's crown and feathers, and ushered us into his Royal Highness's box. silence. I then turned to examine the minutia of a view whose coup d'œil had struck me as so splendid. The theatre was built in the form of a Grecian lyre. The ceiling was a universal interlacement of coloured lamps, interwoven in beautiful figures, and yet so combined and clustered, that they seemed one immense dome of glowing gems of every hue, consolidated by enchantment into a complete mass of variegated light. The effect it is impossible to describe. From several parts of this On looking around, I confess myself much struck with the coup d'ail of this ducal theatre. His Grace observed the surprise and pleasure of my countenance. "You perceive, my sweet young lady," said he (for such was the appellation with || galaxy of stars, seemed to issue infant which he chose to honour me), "you | Cupids, suspended from their native perceive that I have not placed you so heaven by chains so lost in the blaze of the singularly as my Lord Castledowne sup- mingling rays, that they appeared to hang posed. My dear Augusta chose to have absolutely in air, Some held fans of this range of boxes on each side of her ostrich feathers in their hands, and others own box, for her particular friends, and, sparkling crystal vases. in theatrical fashion, she calls them private "What can they be for?" cried I, turnboxes. The tier below, and those benches | ing round; but instead of meeting the eye beneath, like a pit, are of equal respecta- of Sir Bingham, mine by chance met that bility, and free to our audience in general. of his brother. Mr. Courtown instantly Į beg your pardon," cried he, hastily in-replied:" They fling from their crystal terrupting himself; "I see my Duchess beckoning to me from the peep in the curtain, I shall have the happiness to see you again after the play; meanwhile I commission my friend Sir Bingham, who is well acquainted with the geography of my house and theatre, to describe to whom my private boxes are appropriated." Sir Bingham nimbly stepped into the vacant chair which the Duke left between Lady Castledowne and me; and, almost before his Grace had made his excuses to the Earl and left the box, the animated Baronet would have begun his detail. "First," cried Lady Castledowne, "allow us to look around us. When we have made the tour with our eyes we shall then have leisure to follow your annotations with our ears." urns the vesper dew!" "An invasion, Ned, by Heaven!" exclaimed Sir Bingham; you have no right to break in with your scraps from the Pleasures of Hope here. I was to be the Cicerone of this place to la belle Wellwood; and may I be doomed to the horrors of despair, if I suffer any college book-worm to keep a padlock on my tongue while he runs off with my prize." "Prize! Sir Bingham," interrupted I, with offended dignity. "Not as gloomy Dis gathered the fair Proserpine!" returned the Baronet, recovering himself with a softened smile from the momentary asperity with which he had addressed his brother. "The gallant Duke gave you to be my pupil for the night; to initiate you into all the dramatic mysteries "Shall it be so, Miss Wellwood?" asked of Sans Souci House; and surely you would Sir Bingham. I smiled and bowed." My not have me be so ungallant, so ungrate. fat!" cried he; "dumb is the word, tillful to my good fortune, as to relinquish |