Ever since he could walk the Duke had been the leader of a little company of boy soldiers. These were posted as sentinels at his door, tattoos were beat on the drum, while toy fortifications were built by his bed, and once there had nearly taken place a bona-fide fight over the little prostrate body, not laid down; I fancy, in Prince George's rule.
Mrs. Buss, the nurse, was the cause of the quarrel. Wishing to amuse the invalid, she sent by an unlucky Mr. Wetherby an automaton representing Prince Louis of Baden fighting the Turks. "As the young Duke had given up toys since the preceding summer, his masculine attendants started the idea that the present was a great affront, and it was forthwith sentenced to be torn in pieces—an execution which was instantly performed by the Duke's small soldiers." Still not satisfied, however, they next declared that Mr. Wetherby himself ought to be punished for daring to bring such a thing as a doll to the heir of England.
Wetherby, getting an inkling of how matters stood, ran away, but only to be discovered, captured, and brought into the Duke's presence, who gravely pronounced his sentence. The unhappy man was then bound hand and foot, mounted on a wooden horse, and soused all over with water from enormous syringes and squirts. When nearly half drowned, he was again drawn on his horse into the royal bedroom, and I am sorry to find it on record that the young tyrant enjoyed the sight of the man's sorrowful condition immensely.
Still this little boy often showed great kindness of heart. Like most mothers the Princess Anne was anxious that her son should use no vulgar expressions in conversation. She was much shocked one day to hear him say he was "confounded dry."
"Who taught you those words?" she asked.
"If I say Dick Drury, he will be sent down-stairs," the child whispered to one of the court ladies standing by, then added aloud, "I invented them myself, mamma."
And so Dick Drury was saved from punishment for once in his life, if no more.
"Papa, I wish you and mamma unity, peace, and concord, not for a time, but forever," was Gloucester's grave address to his father and mother when celebrating one of the anniversaries of their wedding day.
"You made a fine compliment to their Royal Highnesses to-day, sir," said Lewis Jenkins, afterward.