The Retrospective Review, and Historical and Antiquarian Magazine Volume 13 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1826 edition. Excerpt: ...or unpleasant sensations, on the part of others--a tenderness strangely contrasted with his really callous and cold-blooded heart. The lives of kings, who happen fortunately to be dead to the pleasures of ambition, are in general of an uniform insipidity, monotonous by reason of an established etiquette, and unfavourable to the sincere enjoyment of social pleasures. But this king's had been a life of jeopardy and adventures. He had known the extremities of good and bad fortune. He had seen various countries, and communicated with a great variety of characters. He had much to reflect upon and much to relate. The recollection of all this--the sour faces, and long prayers, and watchful jealousy of the Covenanters--the narrow escapes at Worcester--the privations and distresses of his exile--must have rendered his return to power not only a political triumph, but a source of personal enjoyment, altogether without a parallel in the history of princes. His naturally courteous deportment, rendered doubly gracious by the policy of cultivating popularity, as well as by the sun-shiny mood of mind in which he may be supposed to have been at a period of prosperity so unlooked for, were seen to advantage in his intercourse with those who flocked in shoals to his presence. Heart-expanding smiles, kind and familiar inquiries, good-natured nods of pretended recognition, and kisses of the hand repaid by cordial embraces, were, to all who partook of them, sure pledges of an auspicious reign. " They two got the child and me (the others not being able to crowd in) to see the king, who kissed the child very affectionately." The sight of a king at his meals has always been considered worth something; but what must have been the delight of every loyal subject...