DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 43) His manner to his attendants was full of kindness, but he never forgot that he was still a King, and always expected the deference to which he had been accustomed in former days. And so as he drew near the grave, all within him and around him became stillness, darkness, and obscurity. Of the radiance of the outer world, of the changes of the seasons, of the strife of the elements, no glimmer, no sign, no sound, ever penetrated his vacant mind, or shone before his vacant eye. When in 1815, by the victory of Waterloo, Wel- lington had crushed the aggressive ambition of the Emperor Napoleon, illuminations blazed over England, and the roar of artillery, the flourish of trumpets, and the cheers of the nation, proclaimed the return of peace after a war of twenty years, not the faintest echo of these happy demonstrations stirred the soul of the King. ‘Thy loved ones fell around thee. Manhood’s prime, Youth with its glory, in its fulness age, All, at the gates of their eternal clime, Lay down, and closed their mortal pilgrimage : The land wore ashes for its perished flowers, The graye’s imperial harvest. Thou, meanwhile, Didst walk unconscious through the royal towers, The one that wept not in the tearful isle! As a tired warrior, on his battle plain, Breathes deep in dreams amidst the mourners and the slain.’ Those who were near and dear to him had