"More from grief," replied I, "and reflection on the fatal consequences
that might result to the great personages I have so lately left, than
from the journey."

"Take my advice," resumed he. "You had much better go to bed and rest
yourself. You look very ill."

I did as he recommended, and went to the nearest hotel I could find. I
felt no fatigue of mind or body till I had got into bed, where I was
confined for several days with a most violent fever. During my illness I
received every attention both from the Court, and our Ambassador and Lady
Hamilton, who kindly visited me every day. The Queen of Naples I never
again saw till my return in 1793, after the murder of the Queen of
France; and I am glad I did not, for her agony would have acted anew upon
my disordered frame, and might have proved fatal.

I was certainly somewhat prepared for a difference of feeling between the
two Princesses, as the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, in the letters to
the Queen of Naples, always wrote, "To my much beloved sister, the Queen
of the two Sicilies, etc.," and to the other, merely, "To the Duchess of
Parma, etc." But I could never have dreamt of a difference so little
flattering, under such circumstances, to the Duchess of Parma.




SECTION XVIII.


From the moment of my departure from Paris on the 2d of August, 1792, the