Thy child’s last token cherish,
It is the Book of God.”
It is interesting to know that Sir James Clark was a Navy doctor, who by the friendship of King Leopold was placed in the household of the Duchess of Kent in 1834, and as Navy doctors have no practice among women, he could have known very little about the matter when he so rashly judged Lady Flora Hastings. For the last ten years of his life he lived at Birk Hall, Bagshot Park, which was lent him by the Queen. By those who knew him he was regarded as an estimable, upright man.
CHAPTER XII.
QUEEN VICTORIA’S LOVE.
“The noble Duke knows he is a Protestant; all England knows he is a Protestant; the whole world knows he is a Protestant.”—Melbourne.
“There is no prohibition as to marriage with a Catholic. It is only attended with a penalty, and that penalty is merely the forfeiture of the Crown.”—Brougham.
Wherever the blame of the Flora Hastings affair lay, it must be admitted that with it and the Bedchamber squabble the Queen had had a nerve-breaking time. If the people had shown in a vague way before that they were passing judgment upon her, they now did not fail to announce that the judgment was a thing assured. Her Drawing Rooms and Levées were almost deserted; there were whispers that she was running heavily into debt. “It is probable that before 1841 the help of a now powerful house will be required.”
“She’s not in debt—tho’ some have said it, or
If, why then I’m not a creditor.”
was a couplet that it was pretended was the work of Sir John Conroy.