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removed in consequence of my subsequent downfall. His majesty's manners were those of a cultivated English gentleman. He was much pleased at hearing that our government was monarchical, and that the mass of the people were resolute that it should not be changed; indeed, I was so much encouraged by the evident pleasure with which he heard me, that I ventured to quote to him those beautiful lines of Shakespeare's—
but I was sorry I had done so afterwards, for I don't think his majesty admired the lines as much as I could have wished.
There is no occasion for me to dwell further upon my experience of the court, but I ought perhaps to allude to one of my conversations with his majesty', inasmuch as it was pregnant with the most important consequences.
The king had been asking me about my watch, and whether such dangerous inventions were tolerated in the country from which I came. I owned with some confusion that watches were not uncommon; but, observing the gravity which came over his majesty's face I presumed to say that they were fast dying out, and that we had few if any other mechanical contrivances of which he was likely to disapprove. Upon his asking me to name some of our most advanced machines, I did not dare to tell him of our steam-engines and railroads and electric telegraphs, and was puzzling my brains to think what I could say, when, of all things in the world, balloons suggested