CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE BANISHED PRINCE.

THE conduct of the Prince of Wales was becoming more and more insolent to the King and Queen every day. Perhaps King George was right in his belief that Walpole's policy of compromise had made Frederick think himself of some real account in public affairs. It is certain that he began to act as if he were determined the whole nation should know how thoroughly independent he was of the authority of his father and mother. He had soon a peculiar opportunity of making a display of this ferocious independence.

The Princess of Wales was about to have her first child. For some reason, which no one could well explain, the news of the coming event was not made known to the King and Queen until the hour of its coming was very near. Even then there seems to have been some conscious or unconscious misleading of the King and Queen as to the actual time when according to calculations the child was to be born. The King and Queen were left under the impression that it was a good deal farther off than it really proved to be. The Queen, with all her

1737.

AT HAMPTON COURT.

139

natural goodness of heart, was painfully suspicious. She was suspicious sometimes even of those she loved and trusted; and she hated both the Prince and the Princess of Wales. She had taken it into her head that the Princess of Wales was not likely to have a child. She persisted in asserting to those around her that the Princess was not pregnant and never would be. Naturally when she allowed her mind to be filled with this idea the next conclusion for her to jump to was the conviction that a supposititious infant was about to be palmed off on the Palace and the country. This idea took full possession of her mind, and she kept constantly telling those around her that, no matter when or where the event might take place, she was determined to be in at that birth. In the most explicit and emphatic way she told people that she would make sure for herself that no child was imported in a warming-pan this time.

The King and Queen were now in Hampton Court Palace; the Prince and Princess of Wales were also living there. Nothing would have been easier for the Queen than to carry out her purpose if the Princess were allowed to remain in the palace until after her confinement. It was reported to her that the Prince had said he was anxious that his wife should be confined in London-in St. James's Palace. This the Queen was determined to prevent if she could. The Princess Caroline fully shared her mother's belief that the Prince of Wales was quite capable of palming off a spurious child

on the country; and indeed the King became after a while as well convinced of it as his wife and his daughter. It was resolved then that a message should be sent from the King to the Prince of Wales, giving a sort of Royal command that the Princess should remain at Hampton Court until after her confinement. Lord Hervey shook his head at all this. He did not believe in the warming-pan phantasy; and he felt sure that in any case the Prince of Wales would contrive to get his wife out of Hampton Court if he wished to do so.

What

was to prevent the Princess going up to London a little before her time, and then affecting to fall suddenly ill there, and declaring that she could not endure the pain and danger of removal? Lord Hervey had seen a good deal of the Prince in old days. They had had friendships and quarrels and final estrangement, and he knew his Prince pretty well.

What Hervey had predicted came to pass, but in a worse way than he had ventured to predict. The Queen kept urging Walpole to send the King's order to the Prince. Walpole kept putting it off. For one reason, the minister had been told that the confinement was to be expected in October, and this was only July. It is very probable, too, that he shared Hervey's scepticism alike as to the supposititious child and the possibility of keeping the Prince's wife at Hampton Court against the Prince's will. The Royal command was never sent.

On Sunday, July 31, 1737, the Prince of Wales

1737.

THE FLIGHT TO LONDON.

141

and the Princess dined publicly with the King and Queen in Hampton Court Palace. Not a word was said to anyone about an early approach of the confinement. The Princess seemed in her usual condition. The two sets of Royal personages did not talk with each other at this time, although they thus had ceremonial meetings in public. The Queen

over,

called the attention of some one near her to the Princess's appearance, and insisted that she was not going to have a child at all. When dinner was the Prince and Princess went back to their own apartments; and later that evening the Princess was taken with the pains of labour. Then followed what has hardly ever happened in the story of the life of a poor washerwoman or a peasant's wife. The unfortunate Princess was far gone in her agony before anyone had time to think; and before those around them had much time to think the Prince of Wales had determined to carry her off, groaning in labour as she was, and take her ten miles to London. The whole story is a shocking one; and we shall put it into a very narrow compass. But it has to be told somehow. By the help of an equerry and a dancing-master, the writhing Princess was hoisted downstairs and got into a carriage. The dancingmaster, Dunoyer, was a hanger-on and favourite of the Prince; and, being employed to teach dancing to younger children of George the Second, acted as a kind of licensed spy, so Hervey says, on the one family and the other. In the carriage with the Prince and Princess came Lady Archibald Hamilton, who was

the

By the help of an

understood to be the Prince's mistress. No Royal movement in those days would seem to be thought quite complete without the tress of the King or Prince. London about ten o'clock.

presence of some misThe carriage reached It had been driven at

full gallop, the poor Princess twisting and screaming all the time, and the Prince scolding at her and telling her it was nonsense to cry and groan about pain which would so soon be over. When they got to St. James's Palace there were naturally no preparations made for a lying-in. The Prince and Lady Archibald Hamilton set to work to get some things in readiness, and found they had to send round the neighbourhood to collect some of the most necessary appliances for such an occasion. So pitifully unprovided was the palace that no clean sheets could be found; and the Prince and his mistress put the Princess to bed between two table-cloths. At a quarter before eleven the birth took place. A tiny baby was born; 'a little rat of a girl,' Lord Hervey says, 'about the bigness of a good large tooth-pick.' The little rat of a girl grew up, however, to be a handsome woman. She was seen by John Wilson Croker in 1809 and had still the remains of beauty. The Lords of the Council had been hurriedly sent for to be present at the birth; but the event was so sudden and so unexpected that only Lord Wilmington, the President of the Council, and Lord Godolphin, the Privy Seal, arrived in time to be able to testify that no warming-pan operation was accomplished.