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publish the correspondence and hoped that this would put an end to the cruel

slanders against her.

Caroline read the papers and tried to remember what she had written in those

letters. Comments on her new family. Of one thing she was certain. They would

not have been very flattering.

She laughed at the affair. It was perfectly clear to her what had happened.

Lady Jersey had deliberately stolen the letters and sent them to the Queen.

Then she became angry. Why should she have that woman in her household?

Why should she allow herself to be spied on? She would endure it no longer.

When the King came to see her she told him that she wished to ask a favour of

him.

‘I think,’ she said, ‘that now that the Prince and I have come to an

understanding I should no longer be expected to keep Lady Jersey in my

household.’

‘No, indeed you should not,’ declared the King. ‘Too much, eh what? No, the

woman shall be dismissed. You may leave that to me, my dear.’

Caroline threw her arms about the King’s neck and kissed him.

Bless me,
thought the King,
the woman has no decorum. But it’s rather
pleasant to be kissed by a pretty woman, eh, what?

————————

The King sent for the Prince of Wales

He shook his head sadly over his son’s matrimonial affairs. ‘The people don’t

like it,’ he said ‘They’re in an ill mood. You should take care.’

‘By God,’ cried the Prince of Wales. ‘I married the woman. What more do

they want?’

‘They expect you to do your duty. You should have sons.’

‘I have a daughter. No one can prevent her from becoming Queen of

England.’

‘A son would have pleased them more.’

‘I have pleased them enough. I now intend to please myself.’

‘A Prince can never please his people enough.’

‘So it would seem. But nothing will induce me to return to her. That is settled.

Your Majesty has seen the correspondence?’

‘Yes, yes. And it seems to be a matter on which you are both in agreement—

she as well as you, but there is one matter I have to discuss with you. She asks for the removal from her household of Lady Jersey and in view of the unfortunate

position that lady holds in your affections I must ask you to dismiss her.’

‘And if I refuse?’

‘Then I shall be forced to dismiss her myself. You understand, eh, what?’

The Prince’s face had flushed to a deeper red than usual. ‘So Your Majesty

would concern yourself with my wife’s household?’

‘The lady whom you have repudiated, remember— Someone must protect

her. I have decided to do that.’

The Prince narrowed his eyes. He was not going to fight for Frances. Why

should he? He was tired of her. Perhaps she would realize if he made no attempt

to keep her in Caroline’s household, that he wished to be free of her.

‘Am I to understand that these are Your Majesty’s orders,’ he asked.

‘You may take it so.’

The Prince bowed and retired.

————————

‘And so,’ he told Frances, ‘I had no alternative but to accept.’

‘So you are not allowed to choose the members of your own household?’

‘You are a member of the Princess’s household.’

‘But surely you, as the Prince of Wales, could insist—’

‘Madam,’ said the Prince coldly, ‘I am not the King; and it is on his orders

that you are to leave.’

She was too angry to see the warning lights in his eyes.

She would not forget this insult, she declared. She would make that creature

sorry for this. She had carried tales of her to the King and this was the result.

She was indeed angry. Now she would be of no use to the Queen, and the

Queen would quickly withdraw her favour from one who could not serve her.

This was going to make a great deal of difference to Lady Jersey’s power and

power Was money of which she was very fond. She had had a good picking from

the Prince but there were all sorts of perquisites which came the way of a lady

who was on good terms not only with the Prince but with the Queen who, since

the King had become feeble-minded, had the power to bestow ill sorts of honours.

Yes, Lady Jersey was very angry.

She left the Prince in no doubt of her ill temper, but she did not care. She

believed she had the power to subdue him when she wished to, and it was

Caroline against whom she vented her anger. That gauche ridiculous creature.

Lady Jersey burst out laughing remembering her in the hideous white satin she

had had made for her first meeting with the Prince. Stupid creature, did she think she could get the better of Lady Jersey?

She got into her coach and as it passed down St. James’s, she was recognized

by passersby. One called her a lewd name. The people nowadays were becoming

more and more insolent. Examples should be made of them. She sat back against

the upholstery pretending not to see those grinning faces which looked in at her.

Mud splashed against the window. Someone threw a stone.

It was too bad. She was most displeased.

In the privacy of her own house she sat down to write to the Princess of

Wales, telling her that she had that day obtained permission from the Prince of

Wales to resign her position of Lady of the Bedchamber. She considered that she

had suffered persecution and injustice in Her Royal Highness’s service but she

had the satisfaction of knowing; that through her silence and forbearance she had given proof of her loyalty to His Highness the Prince of Wales and to the royal

family; as for gratitude and attachment to the Prince, that would only cease with her life. She was, with all possible respect, Her Royal Highness’s humble servant.

When she read the letter Caroline shrieked with laughter.

‘At last I am rid of her,’ she cried. ‘First I rid myself of him and then of her.

This is triumph. Now I can live in peace as long as my darling Charlotte is left to me.’

Caroline was happier than she had been since she had come to England. She

was free of the Prince and the odious Lady Jersey; she had her child; and the King was her friend.

But Charlotte was a princess and an heir to the throne so she must be treated

as such. She was no humble child to be cared for solely by her mother. Caroline

could have access to her child; she could spend a greater part of her day in the

nursery, but Charlotte must have her own establishment and Lady Elgin was put

in charge of the royal nursery, with Miss Hayman second in command. Caroline

took a fancy to Miss Hayman who was a very sensible young woman and

interested in music; she played the piano with great skill and was lighthearted and if she was not as polished in her manners as Lady Elgin she was all the more to

Caroline’s taste.

So they were very happy together in Carlton House while the Prince was

away at Brighton and scarcely ever called to see his daughter, the King coming

often to show that he at least liked his daughter-in-law.

‘As for Madam Queen,’ said Caroline to Miss Hayman, ‘she is very welcome

to stay away— and her band of spinster daughters too. I am very pleased to be rid of them. His Majesty is my friend and to tell you the truth, my dear love, I think he is a little in love with me. Oh, it would have been a very different story I can tell you if I had come over here as bride to the father instead of the son. My

blessed Charlotte would be well on the way to becoming the sister of my next, I

do assure you. Ha! Ha! But it was not to be.’

Miss Hayman laughed and was amused by the free and easy conversation of

the Princess of Wales.

The Prince fretted. To think that the odious woman was in Carlton House—

his
Carlton House— that shrine of his own talent and good taste which he had made from the old ruin with which his father had presented him when he could

II0 longer prevent his having his own establishment.

Caroline in Carlton House; Maria keeping away from him. Cruel Maria, who

knew what a failure his marriage with the Princess of Brunswick had been, who

knew that he had never really cared for Lady Jersey. It had been temporary

aberration, a madness which had come upon him, a spell the wicked Frances had

laid on him. In his heart he had never strayed from Maria. She should know this.

But she ignored his advances. She was not often in town; she had given up the

lease of Marble Hill— ah, dear Marble Hill where she had lived when he had first

discovered his Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill! And now she had retired to Castle

Hill in Ealing and was spending much time there— too much time— with the

faithful Pigot.

It should not go on. He would not allow it.

His first step must be to remove Caroline from Carlton House. So he sent

word to her that he wished her apartments to be redecorated and this would

necessarily mean that she must vacate them while the work was being done.

There was a charming villa at Charlton not far from Blackheath. She would

find it a delightful spot. If she would agree to inhabit it while the rooms at Carlton House were being repainted, it should immediately be made ready for her use.

And baby Charlotte? she wanted to know.

Obviously the Princess Charlotte could not be taken from the royal nursery.

She would remain at Carlton House in the care of her governess and nurses. In

due course the child would be reunited with her mother.

It seemed reasonable to Caroline. She prepared to leave for the villa in

Charlton.

She did not know that the Prince of Wales had vowed he would never have

her back at Carlton House; and had expressed the view that he had no desire for

his daughter to be brought up by such a vulgarian as her mother.

The Princess Royal’s Romance

THE Princess Royal came hurrying into the apartments she shared with her

sisters and there was no need to ask her if something exciting had happened; it

was written clearly in her face.

‘I have just seen Papa,’ she cried. ‘So it is true— true.’ Elizabeth looked up

from the canvas on which she was drawing. ‘Not,’ she said, ‘a husband at last?’

Sophia rose from her seat and embraced her eldest sister. ‘Oh, you most

fortunate of women!’

The Princess Royal acceded this. ‘Oh, how grateful I am! How tired I am of

walking the dogs and filling the snuff boxes. I shall be free— free— of restraint for evermore.’

‘Husbands can be more restraining than fathers and mothers,’ Augusta

reminded her.

‘Not more than ours,’ retorted the Princess Royal. ‘I do believe Papa is

jealous of us all. I used to believe he wanted to keep us all here— pure and

unsullied and that is why husbands have never been found for us until now.’

‘And then only one husband!’ sighed Sophia.

‘It is not necessary to be pure as well as unmarried,’ cried Augusta with a

grimace. ‘Do you think dearest Papa realizes that?’

‘You should really be careful in front of the children.’ Sophia and Mary

exchanged glances and laughed. ‘Don’t mind us,’ they said.

‘I am eighteen and not so innocent as I’m supposed to be.’

‘And I can well believe that!’ replied Augusta.

‘Hush!’ cried the Princess Royal. ‘How can you think any man will want to

marry you if you talk like— like—’

‘Harlots?’ suggested Sophia. ‘I confess I often feel they have more interesting

lives than ours.’

‘They could scarcely be less so,’ added Mary gloomily.

‘But,’ soothed Elizabeth, ‘if a husband has been found for our sister perhaps

we need not despair.’

‘There are so many of us,’ wailed Mary, ‘and all getting older and older

every day.’

‘A fate no man or woman can escape, you must admit,’ Elizabeth reminded

them.

‘Yes, but the nearer we spinster-princesses get to the grave the farther we get

from the marriage bed. I must confess it is a dreary thought.’

‘Well let us rejoice that at least one of us is to have a husband,’ said Elizabeth.

‘What do you know of him, sister?’

‘That he is a prince.’

‘Naturally.’

‘That he has been married before.’

‘A widower!’ grimaced Sophia.

‘Pray do not give me your pitying looks,’ cried the Princess Royal. ‘A man

who has been married before is better than no man, I do assure you. And the

second is likely to be your fate. The fact that he has had a wife makes me like him the better. He will be so experienced— perhaps she was a great beauty.’

‘Hardly likely when she was the sister of our sister-in-law Caroline.’

‘Is that indeed so?’