‘I am sure,’ answered Madame de Hertzfeldt, ‘that Caroline is good at heart.
She has a bright intelligence; she has wit. Her spirits are too high most certainly and she is a little.. eccentric. But it is no more. Oh, my dear, let us do all in our power to see that it does not become more.’
The Duke gave his mistress a grateful look.
‘I shall leave it to you,’ ‘he said. ‘Perhaps you will discover how best to treat her and advise the Duchess.’
And he thought once more: What should we do without her?
Caroline was overcome with glee and thought with pleasure of that incident for months afterwards. She forgot that the guests had all been aware that on the night of the ball an accoucheur had come to the palace to attend her.
‘Of course,’ said rumour, ‘we have not been told the truth. The accoucheur came to deliver a child which naturally was, smuggled out of the palace.’
Others, who were sure that there had not been a child and the whole affair had been arranged by Caroline as a protest, were certain that she had not escaped the family taint of madness.
So the rumours had begun in earnest. Caroline, Princess of Brunswick, was either the mother of an illegitimate child or she was mad.
Caroline in Love
THE Princess Caroline was past twenty and still unmarried. The Prince of Orange had been a possible choice and so had the Prince of Prussia, But Caroline, who had been so eager for marriage, decided against them for she had made up her mind that when she married it would be for love.
There had been strange and mystifying news of her sister Charlotte. No one at Brunswick was quite sure what had happened to Charlotte but Caroline’s dramatic imagination supplied her with violent pictures.
Where was Charlotte? She was at the Court of Russia where her husband had left her, and he had taken her three children from her. To be deprived of her children! thought Caroline. What a bitter tragedy! And why had Charlotte allowed that to happen ? Because she was powerless to stop it, was the answer.
Charlotte had been an unfaithful wife, it was said. That was possible. Her husband had put her under the care of the Empress Catherine of Russia, that woman whose amours were notorious throughout Europe. And Charlotte had simply disappeared.
How she would like to go to Russia, to discover what had happened to her sister, to travel and be adventurous! But all the same the affair of Charlotte made one wary of undertaking a marriage which would send one among strangers far from home.
She told her father so when they walked together in the grounds about the Palace, for as she grew older so did the affection between them strengthen and he was the only member of the household with whom she could discuss her innermost thoughts. Her mother was a silly woman, she decided, and although she accepted the virtues of Madame de Hertzfeldt, the fact of her supremacy in the household did make an uneasy position, in spite of the fact that none of them knew what they would do without her. If Madame de Hertzfeldt had been the Duchess and her mother, then she could have confided in both her parents.
Moreover, with such a mother might she not have been more serene, more what they called balanced? Who could say? But there was her father, and when he was not away from home fighting his battles under the command of his friend and patron, Frederick the Great, or was not engaged on state matters at home, he had time for his daughter. The only son who could possibly rule after him was learning his business as a soldier, and Caroline was like an only daughter now that Charlotte had gone.
He often brooded on the boys living out their lives in darkness; on Charlotte who, he was certain, had been murdered in Russia; and asked himself why he and his fertile wife had produced such a brood. Then he turned to gay, lovely and pretty Caroline— for in his eyes she possessed all these qualities— and told himself that at least he had this daughter. And since that affair of the accoucheur she had become less wild He had been the one who had explained to her the folly of such actions and how they grieved him, and he was a little comforted to see that it was the latter which had made most impression on her.
She had put her hand shyly in his— for in spite of all her bravado she was a little afraid of him— and had said ‘Papa, I would not wish to make you sad.’
When he had reported this scene later to Madame de Hertzfeldt she had been pleased and said that the way to mould Caroline was through affection and it was her father who could guide her because there was no doubt that she loved and admired him; and what was perhaps most important of all, respected him.
So when her father sent for her and told her that the Prince of Orange was asking for her hand in marriage she went quietly away and considered all she had heard of the Prince of Orange and decided against the match. Then she returned to explain her feelings to her father.
‘I wish to be married,’ she explained, ‘but I do not wish to be unhappy as my sister must have been. There is much unhappiness in marriage and I would approach it very cautiously.’
‘That’s a wise attitude, I have to admit,’ replied her father.
‘Dear Papa,’ she went on, ‘he would have to be a very attractive bridegroom to make me want to leave you.’
Yes, he had succeeded with her through affection. He had a nightmare picture of her being forced into marriage. What disaster would that bring forth? He dared not speculate for he believed that his unwelcome marriage was the reason why he had three afflicted children. They had found the way to treat Caroline: affection, restraint only when necessary and applied with the gentlest hands, and just a dash of fear— or perhaps respect would be a more apt description.
In any case, the Duke had inspired her with enough admiration and affection to be able to guide her.
‘My dearest daughter,’ he told her, ‘I want you to know that I shall never force you into marriage. You shall only go away from home if you wish it.’
He was rewarded by her response.
‘Dearest Papa, you put me in a quandary. I wish to marry. Above all I wish to have children. Yet I know I shall never wish to leave you.’
‘You will one day. It is natural for you to marry. The day will come. But I want you to know that you will never be forced to accept a marriage which is distasteful to you.’
Oh, yes, it was certainly right. There was a rare softness in her eyes subduing the habitual wildness. This was the way to treat Caroline. And they must employ this method or they would have another tragedy like Charlotte’s.
So she declined the Princes of Orange and Prussia.
The Duchess was excited and came to her daughter’s apartments to tell her why. Caroline’s servants were there but the Duchess never worried about servants; she looked upon them as though they were pieces of furniture and it never occurred to her that they possessed ears and tongues and might be as fond of gossip as she was herself.
‘What do you think, Caroline? My nephew is coming to Brunswick.’
‘Not— the Prince of Wales!’
‘Oh, how I wish that were so! Not quite— my dear. But the next best thing.
His brother, the Duke of York. I am most excited.’
‘Oh, Mamma, you think everything English is better than anything else.’
‘So it is! So it is! If I could only make you see the Court— Not so much as my brother made his but my grandfather’s Court. Everything would have been so different if my father had not died before he could come to the throne. just, think of it, Caroline, now I am the daughter of a Prince of Wales whereas I might have been the daughter of a King.’
‘Well, Mamma, you were of the same family.’