Hester Lynch SALUSBURY

Between 1803 and 1804, as London braced for a feared invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte, Hester Thrale wrote about the mounting anxiety.

2 February 1804

So now for a little While—Farewell beautiful Brynbella! we will go see how London looks in her State of martial Preparation—So bold I hope, that none will dare attack her.

15 May 1804 Brynbella.

We are just returned; & London did look bold, & red with Wrath against y^s cruel Tyrant—His Murder of Duc D’Enghien¹ seems to have filled up the Measure of his Crimes, and were he to attempt Invading our free & valiant Britons—They would drive him back disgrac’d. Meanwhile the King has been ill—but he recovers; & we shall escape the Horrors of A Regency. Buonaparte threats aloud, and Insulting Our distress when the King was sick, shewed himself not even a Gentleman: yet are those slavish Subjects of his, making him Emperor of the Gauls²; He will be assassinated ne’er the less for that though.—

All my London Friends were well I think, & all are Soldiers: & all the Soldiers in high State of Discipline.

Footnotes

1. The Bourbon heir to the throne, who was assassinated in Paris on 22 March 1804.↩︎
2. On 18 May 1804.↩︎