All this anxiety and disappointment began to tell on the poor queen's health, and she was ill and suffering, when, with her usual spirit and energy, she presented herself at the grand door of Westminster-Hall on the morning of the coronation, and demanded admittance as a spectator. She had started from Brandenburgh House at six o'clock, with Lord and Lady Hood and Lady Anne Hamilton in attendance,-in a carriage drawn by six white horses. No person could enter the hall without a ticket, and, as the queen had none, an officer on guard respectfully declined allowing her to pass. She felt the insult keenly, but laughed and chatted in a flippant manner as she turned away. It was a pitiable sight,—that of the queen going to every door in turn, and being turned away because she could not show the indispensable ticket. Lord Hood suggested that on account of her rank the queen should not be bound by the rules which governed others; but the doorkeepers were inexorable, and there was nothing left but for her to enter her carriage and go back home, humiliated, almost crushed.
George IV. had spent days and nights with his tailor and friends, discussing and selecting the various articles in which he was to appear on the grand occasion. His robes are said to have cost twenty-five thousand pounds, and his jewels were gorgeous. Never was a more magnificent scene witnessed than that which marked the coronation ceremony of George IV., and never did monarch labor harder to make it so.
Poor Queen Caroline's nervous system had sustained a shock from which it could not rally, and three months after the king's coronation she died. On the second of August she was attacked with her last illness, and after five days of intense suffering sank into a stupor, from which she never awoke. She was conscious of her condition, made her will, and gave all the necessary directions for the disposal of her body. She died on the seventh of August, 1821, at the age of fifty-three.
Her will contained a clause to this effect: "I desire and direct that my body be not opened, and that three days after my death it be carried to Brunswick for interment,
[Original]
and that the inscription on my coffin be, 'Here lies Caroline of Brunswick, the murdered Queen of England.'"
The king was in Ireland while his wife was dying. There he was magnificently feted and escorted wherever he stopped. He made speeches to flatter his Irish subjects, promises that he never intended to fulfil, and received attentions that were remarkable for nothing more than their insincerity.