SCENE vii PART SECOND
ANOTHER GUEST
it has just reached me from the other side. Can it .be truS?
THIRD GUEST
I think it probable. He has been very ill all the week.
PRINCE REGENT Dead ? Then my f£te is spoilt, by God !
SHERIDAN
L*ong live the King! (He holds up his glass and bows to the Regent.)
MARCHIONESS OF HERTFORD (the new favourite, to the Regent)
The news is more natural than the moment of it! It is too cruel to you that it should happen now!
PRINCE REGENT
Damn me, though ; can it be true ? (He provisionally throws a regal air into his countenance.)
DUCHESS OF YORK (on the Regent's left)
I hardly can believe it This forenoon He was reported mending.
DUCHESS OF ANGOULEME (on the Regent's right)
On this side
They are asserting that the news is false— That Buonapartes child, the " King of Rome," Is dead, and not your royal father, sire.
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