A few days afterwards Princess Charlotte went to Cranbourne Lodge; the Princess of Wales asked permission to visit her; but was answered that her daughter should pass a day with her to take leave of her before she went to Worthing.
This took place;[[2]] and Princess Charlotte, as I heard, went to Connaught-place, attended by Lady Ilchester, and Lady Rosslyn, and General Garth, who was also appointed to be of her suite. Before they parted, the Princess of Wales asked Princess Charlotte whether there was any chance of her renewing the treaty of marriage with the Prince of Orange, and she positively declared she never would. The Bishop, Dr. Short, Mr. S——, and Mr. K—— attended as usual; had houses at Windsor, and went to Cranbourne Lodge in the evening.
The Princess of Wales invited me to dine with her before she left town, which I respectfully declined, but called to take leave. She seemed agitated, had just had leeches applied to her temples, and asked me whether the report of Princess Charlotte having gone out in the carriage alone were true. I contradicted it positively, wondering how such a silly report could have gained ground for a moment. I then read her the following letter, which I had just written to the Prince in justification of Princess Charlotte and myself:
MISS KNIGHT TO THE PRINCE REGENT.
Sir,—As a subject, and one who had the honour of being admitted into your Royal Highness’s family, I consider it a sacred duty to express the grief I feel for having incurred your displeasure.
Your Royal Highness will do me the justice to allow that I was actuated by no ambitious views, but by loyalty and attachment, when I accepted the employment which has been the source of my degradation. I have no near connections left to plead my cause. My sole protection must be derived from the honourable feelings of your Royal Highness. I am not disposed to seek it from the influence of patronage, and still less from the clamours of faction.
Your Royal Highness was graciously pleased to promise me, through Lord Moira, that you would support me in every difficulty, and never give me up. These claims (from accusations to me unknown) your Royal Highness may think I have forfeited. I will therefore only venture to enforce them so far as to solicit your attention to a few words in my justification. Indeed, I need not enforce them. As a good and just Prince, your Royal Highness will listen to the vindication of an individual who appeals to no other tribunal.
Anxious as I was to evince my dutiful attachment to your Royal Highness and to Princess Charlotte, permit me to say that I could not have accepted the employment offered me if I could have foreseen that I was to be the constant and sole inmate of Warwick House. I concluded that the responsibility must almost wholly devolve on the lady who was appointed governess, and that my intended colleague and myself as “Ladies Companions to Princess Charlotte,” the title specified when I came into office, were only to share the duty of attending on her Royal Highness, and to cultivate what was ever my most anxious wish—the greatest harmony between her Royal Highness and every branch of the Royal Family.
No colleague was appointed, and circumstances, no doubt unforeseen by your Royal Highness, rendered my situation very different from what I had expected, but they could not change the nature of my employment, nor invest me with a character, against which your Royal Highness will recollect my remonstrating when the papers erroneously styled me sub-governess.
All this gave me pain, but did not alter my sentiments. I felt the delicacy of my situation, and I devoted myself entirely to the duties which had fallen to my lot. I gave up all society, and nearly all intercourse with my friends. I can solemnly declare that I never left Warwick House but to attend her Royal Highness, unless the Duchess of Leeds was there, and even then so rarely, that I do not believe I made six visits in the space of a year and a half.