CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST YEAR OF MARRIED LIFE.
The Princess’s letters to her family intercepted—Unkindness exhibited to her—The Prince seeks a separation—Acceded to by the Princess—She removes to Blackheath—Her income settled—Merry hours spent by the Princess at Blackheath—Intercourse between the Princess and her daughter—The Princess’s unfortunate acquaintance with Lady Douglas—The boy Austin—Lady Douglas’s communication to the Prince attacking the Princess—The delicate investigation—Witnesses examined—The Princess hardly dealt with—Her memorial to the King—Delay in doing her justice—The Monarch’s decision—Exculpated from the grave charges—Comparison of Caroline Queen of George II. and Caroline of Brunswick—The Prince and Lady Hertford—Miss Seymour, and the Prince’s subornation of witnesses—Persecution of the Princess by her husband—Her appeal to the King—Menace of publishing The Book—The Princess received at the Queen’s drawing-room—Meeting of the Prince and Princess—Death of the Duke of Brunswick at the battle of Jena—The Duchess a fugitive—The Princess’s debts.
The Princess had cause then, and stronger reason soon after, for her melancholy. She had written a number of letters to her family and friends in Germany. These she intrusted to the Rev. Dr. Randolph, who was about to proceed to Brunswick, for delivery. The illness of Mrs. Randolph kept the doctor in England, and he returned the letters to the Princess of Wales, under a cover addressed to Lady Jersey. The letters fell into the Queen’s hands. This, however, was only discovered later; and the discovery accounted for the cold reserve of Queen Charlotte towards the Princess, for the letters contained some sarcastic remarks upon the Queen’s appearance and manners. In the meantime, on the packet failing to reach its proper owner, due inquiry was made, but nothing further was discovered, except that the reverend doctor declared that he had transmitted it to Lady Jersey, and that individual solemnly protested she had never received it. That it reached Queen Charlotte, was opened, and the contents read, was only ascertained at a later period.
In whatever rudeness of expression the Princess may have indulged, her fault was a venial one compared with those of her handsome and worthless husband. While she was in almost solitary confinement at Brighton he was in London, the most honoured guest at many a brilliant party, with Mrs. Fitzherbert for a companion. On several occasions these two were together, even when the Princess was present. The latter, by this time, knew of the private marriage of her husband with the lady, and that he had denied, through Fox, who was made the mouthpiece of the lie, that his ‘friendship’ with Mrs. Fitzherbert had ever gone to the extent of marriage. If we have to censure the after-conduct of the Princess, let us not forget this abominable provocation.
Except from the kindly-natured old King, Caroline experienced little kindness, even during the time immediately previous to the birth of her only child, the Princess Charlotte. This event took place at ten in the morning of the 7th of January 1796, amid the usual solemn formalities and the ordinary witnesses. Addresses of congratulation were not lacking. Among them the city of London prepared one for the Prince, but the conventionally ‘happy father,’ who had looked down upon his legitimate child with the critical remark that ‘it was a fine girl,’ declined to receive the congratulations of the City, unless in private. The pretext given was that a public reception was too expensive a matter in the Prince’s reduced condition; and the pretext was so insulting to the common sense of the corporation that the members very properly refused to ‘go up’ at all.
The truth was that the Prince shrunk from being congratulated upon his prospects as a husband, seeing that he was about to separate himself for ever from the society of his wife. The latter had caused the removal of Lady Jersey from her household. This was effected by the hearty intervention of him whom the Scottish papers not inaptly called that ‘decent man, the King.’
The intimation of the Prince’s desire for a separation was conveyed to the Princess of Wales by Lady Cholmondeley. Her Royal Highness made only two remarks—first, that her husband’s desire should be conveyed to her directly from himself in writing; and that, if a separation were now insisted on, the former intimacy should never under any circumstances be resumed.
If his Royal Highness had acceded to all his consort’s wishes with the alacrity with which he fulfilled this one in particular, there would have been more happiness at their hearth. In his letter to her he said: ‘Our inclinations are not in our power, nor should either of us be answerable to the other, because nature has not made us suitable to each other. Tranquillity and comfortable society are, however, in our power; let our intercourse, therefore, be restricted to that.’ It is what Froissart might call ‘sadly amusing’ to find him offering tranquillity when he was predisposed to persecute, and recommending that their intercourse should take the character of a ‘comfortable society,’ when he was about to turn her out of her home, and without any greater fault laid to her charge than that she had outlived his liking. With regard to the Princess’s expressed determination that, if there were a separation now, it must be ‘once and for ever,’ he agreed to it with alacrity; ‘even in the event,’ he said, ‘of any accident happening to my daughter, which I trust Providence in its mercy will avert, I will not infringe the terms of the restriction by proposing, at any period, a connection of a more particular nature.’
Her Royal Highness, in her reply, acknowledged that his conduct during the year of their married life saved her from being surprised by the communication addressed to her. She does not complain, desires it only to be publicly understood that the arrangement is not of her seeking, and that ‘the honour of it belongs to you alone;’ and appeals to the King, as her protector, whose approbation, if he can award as much to her conduct, would in some degree console her. ‘I retain,’ she thus concludes, ‘every sentiment of gratitude for the situation in which I find myself enabled, as Princess of Wales, by your means, to surrender myself unconstrainedly to the exercise of a virtue dear to my heart—I mean charity. It will be my duty, also, to be influenced by another motive—desire to give an example of patience and resignation under every trial.’
In October 1804 Mr. George Rose entered in his diary that the Princess of Wales had recently said to Mr. George Villiers: ‘I cannot say I positively hate the Prince of Wales, but I certainly have a positive horror of him.’ ‘They lived,’ adds Mr. Rose of the ill-matched pair, ‘in different houses, dined at different hours, and were never alone together. The Princess said: “Nothing shall shake the determination I have taken to live in no other way than the state of separation we are now in.”’