“Victoria.”
Lady Flora’s first letter on this matter, written to her sister and brother-in-law, runs as follows:—
“My dear Charles and Selina,
“Though I know neither of you would ever believe (were the Angel Gabriel to reveal it to you) anything evil of old Flo, I must not let you hear from others the horrible conspiracy from which it has pleased God to preserve me. It is evidently got up by Lehzen, who has found willing tools in Ladies Tavistock and Portman and Sir James Clark; evidently ultimately directed against the Duchess (of Kent), though primarily against me. The means employed were to blacken my character, and represent me to be—I can scarce write the words!—with child! I have no time for particulars to-day, but will write you fully to-morrow. I have come out gloriously. I underwent as they demanded, and the Queen urged by them did also, the most rigid medical examination, and have the fullest certificate of my innocence, signed by Sir James Clark and Sir Charles Clarke. My Duchess could not have been kinder had she been my mother; she is one of the noblest of human beings—Hastings came to town instantly and behaved like an angel, with such judgment and affection! All my real friends have been very true to me and very kind to me. I would not write thus hurriedly, but I hear it has reached the Clubs, and I fear your learning it from another source, and being anxious about me. It made me very ill for two or three days, I was so shocked and shattered. The poor Queen was sadly misled in the business; she did not know what she did and sanctioned; she is very sorry. I hear at the Clubs they have named two or three names with mine; one is poor Sir John Conroy’s. How infamous. No one, thank God, however, is disposed to think ill of our father and mother’s child, nor has my conduct been such as to encourage evil thoughts of me, and I am told people are vehement at the insult I have received.”
Lady Flora complained of the way in which this examination was conducted, and her maid, who was present, spoke of the roughness and indecency shown. Later, when she was delirious, she accused the doctors who attended her of saying she was like a married woman. During the preliminaries Sir Charles Clarke, a specialist in midwifery, said kindly, “Lady Flora’s answers are so satisfactory that we need proceed no further,” to which “that brute, Sir James Clark” (to quote from Lady Sophia) answered, “If Lady Flora is so sure of her innocence, she can have no objection to what is proposed.”
There was little chance of keeping such an affair quiet. From club to newspaper was but a step, and by the 10th of March Lady Adelaide Hastings, a sister of Lady Flora, wrote: “It is known all over London, and The Morning Post, though without the names, spoke so distinctly of the whole occurrence that there is no hiding it, even were there any advantage in so doing. In the whole truth there is nothing that is not honourable to all but the Queen, her Ladies, and Sir James Clark. The Duchess (of Kent), whose conduct has been most kind and like a mother to our dear sister, and who bitterly feels the insult, dismissed him from her household immediately. He is a wretch to have allowed himself to be put forward as the tool of those base women, and as a man and a physician has acted infamously. The Queen has not yet dismissed him, but I think she must, at least if she has any regard to public opinion, which loudly calls at least for his disgrace. The Queen has been misled and duped, I think. I cannot believe that she knew all that was said in her name, or that the message Lady Portman brought us, as from her, had her real sanction. One would think nineteen was too young for a woman so to forget what was due to a mother, and to have so little regard for the feelings of one she had lived in intimacy with. You will be grieved to hear that Lord Harewood’s daughter (Lady Portman) could have acted as Lady Portman has done, but she acted very ill. After giving the Queen’s message to Flora (and, observe, it was not till after Sir James Clark’s insulting charge), she went ‘by command’ to communicate it to the Duchess, on whose saying, ‘She knew Flora and her family too well to listen to such an imputation of that kind on her,’ Lady Portman insisted on asserting it, as Flora says in her letter, ‘with a degree of pertinacity amounting to violence.’ The Duchess refused to see her again. The Duchess wrote Mamma a letter full of affection for Flora, and praise of her conduct, and evidently bitterly feeling the Queen’s conduct. She came and sat with Flora in her room that evening to try and comfort her, and has indeed all along been most affectionate, but it is a sad thing to feel that because they are so faithful to her, her friend and servant must be exposed to indignity from her daughter. It was the 16th of last month this took place. The Duchess and Flora stayed in her own apartments for a week, as she said she would not associate with the rest of the inhabitants of the Palace, till proper apologies had been made. She was then induced to receive their ample apologies, as the Minister (the Duke of Wellington,[5] who Flora says has behaved kindly and like a good soldier) represented that it would injure the Queen if she held out any longer.”
So far as this the matter was a most unhappy mistake, caused by gossip and uncharitableness on the part of some, and by ignorance and an unnatural prejudice on the part of the Queen. Had Victoria taken some means, in addition to that of expressing her sorrow, of showing that the blame was on her side, things would have smoothed down, and we might never have heard of the affair. But she did nothing. The watching public began to grow curious; if neither the doctor nor the two ladies were sufficiently to blame to warrant dismissal, had there been some truth in the charge after all? it not unnaturally asked. The two following extracts from letters written by Lady Sophia Hastings show the next stage of the scandal. They are hard and revengeful, and give an impression of being the reflex of the prevailing bitter political agitation as much as the result of the injury to the family.
“—— have given up Sir James Clark as their physician, and many medical men have refused to meet him in consultation, as they, and Sir Henry Halford among them, say he has cast an odium on the profession. I hear they cried out, either in the Park or in the Theatre, to the Queen, ‘Dismiss Lady Portman,’ and on Saturday she was hissed in the Park. I hope this may bring her to her senses, and make her give up the unfit people who are about her. The Royal Family have felt very properly about this. Princess Sophia sent Mamma a message through Dr. Doyle, who had seen her, expressive of her sympathy, and the Duchess of Gloucester spoke in the same way, both reprobating the conduct of the Queen. Even Lord Melbourne’s friends say, ‘It was a great oversight not to dismiss Sir James Clark.’ The report is, he says, ‘they dare not dismiss him for fear of his telling things.’”
Again: “I am so angry with the whole pack. As long as they thought they could keep matters quiet, and hide their own disgrace, they were all so amiable, and the Queen so gracious to Flora. Since her family have resented the affront, Her Majesty takes no notice, pays her not the slightest attention for weeks, till after she was so ill she had two medical men attending her for days, Her Majesty sends to inquire for her. The child’s notice is worth nothing, but it shows the disgusting meanness of the clique. Lady Tavistock keeps rubbing against Flora at parties, following her, and trying to force herself on her acquaintance. None of them appear in the least sensible of the generous forbearance which has spared their public disgrace and conviction for the sake of their families. They go on as if they were injured. Oh, how I hate them!”
This attitude of the Queen, who was evidently determined that she would dismiss no one, and do nothing that would satisfy the public that Lady Flora was innocent, and who resented the demand upon her that she should do so as much as the Hastings resented the charge made against a member of their family, led to very bad results. Before the end of March gossip had but one theme, and that was the probable guilt of Lady Flora Hastings. The talk was not confined to London; Paris, Brussels, and Vienna were discussing the matter with interest; so much so that Captain Hamilton FitzGerald, who had married Lady Charlotte Rawdon, sister of the late Marquis of Hastings, wrote a letter to The Examiner, which was copied into all the other papers. It was a temperate, fair, and clear account of what had taken place, throwing no imputation upon anyone; and it included the following paragraph about Victoria: “Lady Flora is convinced that the Queen was surprised into the order which was given, and that Her Majesty did not understand what she was betrayed into; for, ever since the horrid event, Her Majesty has shown her regret by the most gracious kindness to Lady Flora, and expressed it warmly, with ‘tears in her eyes.’”