Transcriber’s Notes:
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BY THE AUTHOR OF “BERTRAM,” &c.
IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. IV.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY,
AND HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO. CHEAPSIDE,
LONDON.
1820.
“The whole of the next day was occupiedby Donna Clara, to whom letter-writingwas a rare, troublesome, andmomentous task, in reading over andcorrecting her answer to her husband’sletter; in which examination she foundso much to correct, interline, alter, modify, expunge, and new-model, that finallyDonna Clara’s epistle very much resembledthe work she was now employedin, namely, that of overcasting a pieceof tapestry wrought by her grandmother,representing the meeting of king Solomonand the queen of Sheba. The new work,instead of repairing, made fearful havockamong the old; but Donna Clara went on,like her countryman at Mr Peter’s puppet-show,playing away (with her needle) in aperfect shower of back-strokes, fore-strokes,side-thrusts, and counter-thrusts, till not afigure in the tapestry could know himselfagain. The faded face of Solomon was garnishedwith a florid beard of scarlet silk(which Fra Jose at first told her she must ripout, as it made Solomon very little betterthan Judas) that made him resemble a boiledscallop. The fardingale of the queen ofSheba was expanded to an enormous hoop,of whose shrunk and pallid wearer it mightbe truly said, “Minima est pars sui.” Thedog that, in the original tapestry, stood by the spurred and booted heel of theoriental monarch, (who was clad in Spanishcostume), by dint of a few tufts of blackand yellow satin, was converted into a tiger,—atransformation which his grinningfangs rendered as authentic as heart couldwish. And the parrot perched on thequeen’s shoulder, with the help of a trainof green and gold, which the ignorant mistookfor her majesty’s mantle, proved avery passable peacock.”
“As little trace of her original epistledid Donna Clara’s present one bear, as didher elaborate overcasting to the originaland painful labours of her