o b464705202491194

by Cheyenne

  Princess of Wales she was a pleasant lady, always with a smile for any who

  looked her way; and often she would stop and talk to the children in a manner

  which showed she loved them.

  Caroline thought: If it had happened differently I should have been happy

  here. We might have made a good royal marriage.

  If she could have had some of her friends with her she would have felt more at

  ease. Why had he been so cruel as to deny her the company and skill with English

  of Mademoiselle Rosenzweig? If only she could have had someone just to talk to.

  But she was unsure of all these English women who surrounded her, because they

  all seemed to be under the influence of Lady Jersey.

  She talked a little to Mrs. Harcourt, who was inclined to be sympathetic.

  ‘The Prince hates me,’ she said. ‘Why does he hate me so much?’

  ‘Your Highness is mistaken. The Prince needs a little time to grow used to his

  marriage. He, er—’

  Caroline burst out laughing. ‘The more used to it, he grows the more he hates

  it. Though I daresay few people here have ever seen a bridegroom try to turn

  away from the altar just at that moment when the Archbishop is about to make

  him and his bride man and wife.’

  ‘Your Highness finds this amusing?’

  ‘Very amusing,’ cried Caroline, speaking in her racy French. ‘I wonder if it

  has ever happened before to a Princess of Wales? If not, I shall be remembered

  for it, shall I not?’

  ‘If it were true, Madam, which I am sure it is not, it would best be forgotten.’

  Mrs. Harcourt for all her sternness and her loyalty to Lady Jersey was sorry

  for the Princess and somehow conveyed it.

  ‘You need not be sorry for me,’ cried Caroline. ‘It is the life of princes. My

  father used to talk of it. He was forced to marry my mother and was in love with

  another woman. He regretted he could not have married her. He always believed

  that if he had, his children would have been different.’ Again that shrill laughter.

  ‘Oh you are thinking that I am a little mad like my brother? Perhaps you are right.

  Perhaps I lin. Oh no, no. I am very wise. I know that this is a mariage de

  convenance. Are not all royal marriages? But this one particularly so. I would never have been brought over here if the Prince had not been in debt. I was the

  victim of Mammon. The Prince of Wales’s debts must be paid and poor little I’s

  person was the pretence.’

  ‘Your Highness!’ murmured Mrs. Harcourt, shocked.

  ‘Oh, Your Highness! Your Highness!’ mimicked Caroline. ‘You know the

  truth of this as well as I do, Madam. Parliament would vote supplies only for the marriage of the heir-apparent. A Protestant Princess must be found so they fixed

  on the Prince’s cousin. I hate it all. I tell you God’s truth, I hate it all!’ She threw back her head and beat her hands an her heavy breasts. But I had to oblige my

  father. He wished it. My mother wished it. And what could I do?’

  ‘It is like so many royal marriages, Your Highness. But these are often happy.

  The King and the Queen—’

  ‘Have fifteen children. Shall I? I think the Prince will be content with one—

  for when he has one he no longer needs to sleep with me. I tell you, this is what he waits far. He wishes to say: "I have done my duty. Now, I need do no more. It is enough.’ And I shall be glad. I do not love him. Let him go to his Jersey

  woman. The moment I saw that woman with my future husband I knew how it

  was with them and I shrugged my shoulders and knew I did not care.’

  Her eyes were glazed with a sudden emotion; she was thinking of Major von

  Töbingen with the amethyst pin with which he had said he would never part while

  he lived.

  ‘Oh mine God,’ she cried, ‘I could be the slave of the man I love. But one I

  did not love and who did not love me that is a very different thing— that is

  impossible.’

  ‘Your Highness should not talk in this way.’

  ‘Do not, I beg you, tell me how I should talk. I talk as I wish, Madam. And I

  say this: Very few husbands love their wives and when a person is forced to

  marry another it is enough to make them hateful to each other. If I had come over here just as a Princess on a visit— Do you know that that was what Mr. Pitt

  wanted me to do? Oh, it was before there was talk of marriage; but I think Mr. Pitt wanted the Prince to marry and he thought that if I came over on a visit the Prince might have liked me a little. Do you think he would?’

  ‘I feel sure he would.’

  ‘Yes, he would have liked me— and perhaps I should have liked him. We

  should have been good friends. It would have been very different— perhaps.’

  She began to laugh. ‘But do not be sorry for me, my good Mrs. Harcourt. All

  the Prince gives me in trouble shall be repaid. If he does not want me, believe me I do not want him. Once I am with child, once I have my baby, I shall be ready to say: Go away. Your presence is offensive to me. ’ Her laughter was more wild.

  ‘Oh, you are shocked. Be shocked. It amuses me to shock people and if I am not

  to have love, let me at least have amusement.’

  The Princess of Wales was indeed very strange, thought Mrs. Harcourt.

  ————————

  When they could no longer curb their hatred of each other, they allowed it to

  break out and seemed to take a great delight in hurting each other.

  The Prince would wrinkle his nose in disgust when he looked at her. Caroline,

  deeply wounded, determined not to show her hurt, would give vent to mocking

  laughter or sometimes she would try to discountenance him with her ribaldry. Her

  intention was to show him that she did not care for him any more than he cared

  for her and that the marriage had been forced on her no less than it had been

  forced on him

  One evening when there were guests at Kempshott and it was necessary that

  they dine together with their guests, he looked distastefully at her. Her appearance was always too flamboyant; her clothes— no matter who was her dressmaker—

  managed to look vulgar in his eyes as soon as she put them on. She was always

  over-rouged, although her cheeks were naturally highly coloured; her dresses

  never seemed to fit. Her bust which was magnificent— and he thought of Maria’s

  fine bosom every time he looked at her— gave her a pear shaped look which he

  found repulsive in the extreme. She loved finery and would wear too many jewels

  of clashing colours in which she managed to look slovenly, and the greatest crime of all was that she refused to bath frequently.

  The Prince shuddered and as he could not bear to look at her face, he fixed his

  gaze on her feet.

  ‘Well, she cried truculently, ‘you seem to find my boots very interesting.’

  ‘I find them extremely clumsy.’

  ‘Oh, so you do? Well then you go and make me another pair. Yes, you go and

  make me a pair of boots. And then bring them to me and perhaps if I consider

  them good enough I. may wear them.’

  The Prince turned away.

  Although she might shout and mock she was bitterly wounded.

  It was a comforting thought to know that the Prince had invited her old friend

  Malmesbury to dinner that night. What joy it would be to see him!

  She would never forget how he had tried to help her. He, who knew the Prince

  so well, must have realized
what would happen when she came to England. No

  wonder he had been so anxious for her, so eager to help her— dear good

  Malmesbury If only they had brought her over to marry him instead of the Prince,

  how different it would have been believe, she thought, that I hate my husband.

  Among the guests were Lady Jersey and Colonel Hanger. She hated them

  both. Lady Jersey now made no secret of her contempt for Caroline.

  She wanted everyone to know that she was the true mistress of the house.

  What an insult to have his mistress as Lady of the Bedchamber when she had not

  been allowed to bring her own friends from Brunswick. And Colonel Hanger was

  a coarse man, a player of practical jokes, and she wondered that her fastidious

  husband could have such a man for a friend.

  But his tastes were not all that refined it seemed. He could gather together the

  most vulgar companions at times. It was all very well to be so elegant and wear

  such beautiful clothes and to bow in such a manner that it was the admiration of

  all who saw it. But what about some of these vulgar friends of his like Colonel

  Hanger, Sir John and Letty Lade, and the Barry brothers? They were always

  playing their silly practical jokes and of course she was the butt for most of them; they invaded the house and it was made noisy by their horseplay. And how they

  drank! They were almost always drunk and she would often find them sleeping on

  the sofas with their boots on— snoring.

  Not so elegant, she thought grimly.

  At dinner the Prince was attentive to Lady Jersey and kept pressing her hand

  and looking at her with great affection.

  Still, she thought, he doesn’t feel quite so affectionate to her as he pretends to be. It’s all to anger me.

  And the woman was wearing pearl bracelets. She knew those pearl bracelets.

  They were hers. They had been part of the jewellery which had come to her on her marriage. How dared he take them away from her collection to give to Lady

  Jersey!

  There is surely a limit to what I need stand, she thought.

  Malmesbury was looking sad, now and then catching her eye as though he

  would warn her. Warn her! Shouldn’t he warn the Prince? Who had set the pace?

  Had she or the Prince? When she had come here she had been ready to be a good

  wife to him, to build up some family life, to give him some affection.

  If only I could go home, she thought. I f I could explain to my father that this life is so wretched that no good can come of it! But that is impossible. Royalty must come before happiness. Royal people had no say in their destinies— royal

  Princesses that was. The Prince was determined to have his way, and even though

  he had been obliged to marry which was really because of his debts— he still

  intended to keep on Lady Jersey.

  The meal over, Colonel Hanger lighted the great pipe which he affected.

  Everyone laughed at George Hanger who did the most eccentric things; and no

  one dreamed of protesting even at that big ill-smelling pipe of his.

  The Prince was smiling at Lady Jersey who was talking animatedly to him. He

  took her glass and drank from it. It was a token of the state of affairs between

  them.

  In a sudden rage Caroline snatched the pipe from Colonel Hanger’s mouth

  and putting it in her own, puffed smoke across the table into the Prince’s face.

  There was a hushed silence about the table. She was aware of the Prince’s

  blank stare, of the glitter of Lady Jersey’s snake-like eyes.

  Caroline burst out laughing. She had to do something to put an end to that

  awful silence.

  Everyone was embarrassed; the Prince looked helpless; then ignoring her

  completely he began to talk of the play which was running at Drury Lane.

  Caroline knew nothing of the play. She could not join in.

  She sat smiling to herself. She was not going to let any of them know how

  unhappy she was.

  The Prince had sent for the Earl of Malmesbury who came to him rather sadly

  guessing that after that strange exhibition at the table the Prince was going to

  criticize his consort and because Malmesbury had brought her over to blame him.

  He saw at once that the Prince was really angry. ‘Well, Harris,’ he said, ‘you

  have seen that extraordinary display of bad manners. How do you like this sort of thing?’

  Malmesbury murmured that he did not like it at all, but he thought that the

  Princess was in a strange country and was not yet sure of herself.

  ‘Not sure of herself!’ echoed the Prince. ‘My dear Harris, what antics do you

  think she will perform when she is? Why on Earth did you not write to me from

  Brunswick and tell me what sort of woman you were bring over?’

  ‘Your Highness, there was nothing of which to complain against the

  Princess’s moral character.’

  ‘You could bring this— this woman over, knowing what you did. I do not

  consider you served me very well.’

  ‘Your Highness, His Majesty sent me to Brunswick not on a discretionary

  commission but with the most positive commands to ask the Princess Caroline in

  marriage.’

  ‘I see, said the Prince bitterly. ‘You were obeying the King and you did not

  see it as your duty to warn me.’

  ‘Your Highness, replied Malmesbury somewhat sharply, ‘while I knew that

  the Princess had much to learn I did not conceive that Your Highness would make

  up your mind so to dislike her.’

  The Prince looked exasperated. ‘You see what she is like— Do you think she

  will ever inspire respect in my friends?’

  ‘I think, with encouragement, she will improve.’

  ‘With encouragement, Harris, you are always so discreet and diplomatic, are

  you not?’

  ‘It is my business, sir, to cultivate these qualities.’

  ‘You manage well, I do assure you. But that has not helped me very much I

  fear. I see nothing but disaster through this marriage— nothing but disaster. This woman is— impossible. She revolts me. She is not even clean.’

  Malmesbury looked hurt. He understood, of course. Had he not tried to instill

  in her the importance of freshness; had he not warned her of the extra-

  fastidiousness of the Prince?

  And she had lightheartedly refused to consider his advice. He was exasperated

  with her, but desperately sorry for her too.

  And through her he had lost the confidence of the Prince who could never

  quite forgive those whom he thought considered his father before himself.

  ‘And what do you think will be the outcome of this marriage which you,

  Harris, have arranged?’

  ‘I think the outcome will depend on you, sir, and Her Highness. And I must

  remind Your Highness that it was His Majesty who, with your consent, arranged

  the marriage. My commission was merely to go to Brunswick and make a formal

  offer. This, sir, I did to the best of my ability.’

  The Prince shook his head mournfully. ‘I know, I know. But a word of

  warning, Harris. One word of warning. What disaster might have been averted

  then!’

  Malmesbury could only look regretful; but as he left the Prince’s apartment he

  knew that he was expected to take some share of the blame for the marriage and

  the Prince would always remember it against him.

  ————————

  He sa
w the Princess.

  ‘I would to God, my lord,’ she said, ‘that I had never Come to England.’

  ‘Your Highness will grow accustomed to your new life.’

  ‘I will never grow accustomed to life with him. Nor shall I have to. Because I

  tell you this, my lord: As soon as I am with child he will never see me again. That is what he waits for. The best news I can give him is that I am with child.’

  ‘It is the best news you can give the nation.’

  ‘Oh, my dear Ambassador, who is always so correct— and therefore so

  different from me. Yes, it will be good news. If I can provide the heir the nation will be pleased. But he will be pleased— not so much because I have give them

  the heir but because he can then be rid of me.’

  ‘Your Highness, you remember when we were in Brunswick I implored you

  to be discreet and calm.’

  ‘You implored me to do so much, you dear good kind man. But you could not

  change me, could you? But I love you for trying.’

  Malmesbury flinched. She would never learn. She would go on making wild

  and reckless statements, but she would not wash as she should; and she would

  never please the Prince of Wales.

  ‘You see, my dear lord, I shall never change. I shall always be your naughty

  Caroline of Brunswick.’

  ‘I believe that if you would try very hard to behave in a manner which would

  not shock the Prince—’

  ‘Shock him. He is the right one to be shocked. You know, don’t you, that he

  sleeps with that Jersey woman?’

  Malmesbury turned away, his expression pained. What could he do to help

  such a woman? Had he not done his utmost; and all his efforts had clearly been in vain.

  There was nothing he could do, thought Malmesbury.

  The marriage was doomed.

  The King was equally concerned for the marriage. The Prince disliked his

  bride and that was bad; but whatever happened appearances must be kept up.

  The Queen came to his apartments. How their relationship had changed,

  thought the King sadly. In the days before his illness she would never have dared to come without an invitation. Now, of course, she was so necessary to him. A

  good wife, he thought. And he remembered all the children who had given him so

  much cause for anxiety: The girls who ought to have husbands found for them for

  they were growing restive and in a few years would be too old for marriage; the