aid of diligent upholstery. Upon the whole, the change was not one
which conduced to comfort; and I have heard that the princesses wept
when they quitted their snug boudoirs in the Queen's Lodge. Windsor
Castle, as it was, was a sad patchwork affair.

The late king and his family had lived at Windsor nearly thirty years,
before it occurred to him to inhabit his own castle. The period at
which he took possession was one of extraordinary excitement. It was
the period of the threatened invasion of England by Napoleon, when, as
was the case with France, upon the manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick,
"the land bristled."

The doings at Windsor were certainly more than commonly interesting at
that period; and I was just of an age to understand something of their
meaning, and partake the excitement. Sunday was especially a glorious
day; and the description of one Sunday will furnish an adequate picture
of these of two or three years.

At nine o'clock the sound of martial music was heard in the streets.
The Blues and the Stafford Militia then did duty at Windsor; and though
the one had seen no service since Minden, and most undeservedly bore
the stigma of a past generation; and the other was composed of men who
had never faced any danger but the ignition of a coal-pit;--they were
each a remarkably fine body of soldiers, and the king did well to
countenance them. Of the former regiment George III. had a troop of his
own, and he delighted to wear the regimentals of a captain of the
Blues; and well did his burly form become the cocked hat and heavy
jack-boots which were the fashion of that fine corps in 1805. At nine
o'clock, as I have said, of a Sunday morning, the noise of trumpet and
of drum was heard in the streets of Windsor; for the regiments paraded