William Frederick, her brother, seeking to bring her out of her melancholy told her that she must make a definite decision about her marriage. He was sure that once she had settled that matter she would begin to build a new life.
"I shall not marry the Archduke," she said. "I do not believe she wished it."
Frederick William, being piqued because he had not been consulted in the matter—after all he was the head of the family, even though younger than Caroline—was secretly pleased. The Austrians should have consulted him. He was young and had not long before succeeded to the title; he had been made to feel, for so many years, that he was of little importance, so now he felt he must continually remind people how his position had changed.
"I think it is the right decision," he said.
"You seem very certain."
"I am sure you would never have been a Catholic."
"No. I never should. I could never be so definite in my beliefs. She was not. She always said on religious matters we must always have an open mind."
"Then you would have been unhappy in Spain."
"I will write at once to Leibniz. He will tell me how to handle this matter. He will draft the letter I must write. I know he too will be with me in this."
She went at once to her apartment. Her brother was right. Now that she had made her decision her spirits had lifted a little.
Leibniz was at Hanover in attendance on the Electress Sophia.
He read to her Caroline's letter asking him to draft the refusal.
The Electress was delighted. If only, she thought that stubborn fool of an Elector would listen to me. If only he would ask for Caroline for George Augustus. Sometimes I think he refuses to do what I ask simply because I ask it!
And what could an old woman do? It had been the same in the old days with Ernest Augustus. He had allowed Clara von Platen to influence him, but not his wife. She remembered how her husband and his mistress had decided to marry George Lewis to Sophia Dorothea and had not told her anything about the plan until they needed her help to put it into action.
And she, the granddaughter of a King, and King of England at that, had allowed this to be. Well, at least she had kept her place in the Electorate; she was honoured; and although Ernest Augustus would not be influenced by her, he allowed her supremacy in her own little Court. She had remained to bear his children—not like poor Sophia Dorothea, languishing in prison now. Had she protested as that foolish woman had, would her fate have been similar? These Germans had no idea how to treat women. How different her cousin Charles of England had been. How different was Louis XIV, the Sun King, the most admired monarch in Europe. These men were gentlemen and that fact helped them to be great rulers.
As for her son George Lewis, he was the crudest of them all. And foolish too. He was going to lose the opportunity of bringing the most accomplished of Princesses to Hanover.
Leibniz read Caroline's letter aloud.
"Heaven, jealous of our happiness, has taken away from us our adored and adorable Queen. The calamity has overwhelmed me with grief and sickness, and it is only the hope that I may soon follow her that consoles me. I pity you from the bottom of my heart for her loss to you is irreparable. I pray the good God to add to the Electress Sophia's life the years that the Queen might hav« lived and I beseech you to add my devotion to her."
Sophia wept quietly as she listened.
She and I alone could console each other, she thought.
Yet it was no use talking to George Lewis. What did he know of grief? What did he know of love?
The clocks were striking midnight when George Augustus with the Baron von Eltz and one valet rode through the narrow streets of Hanover, past the gabled houses with their sloping roofs, past the Markt Kirche, the Rathhaus, out of the town and away towards Ansbach.
This was the most exciting adventure he had ever undertaken; the miracle was that it should be happening at his father's suggestion.
Caroline! He was half-way to falling in love with her already. He hoped she was not too clever. He didn't like clever women. He had never enjoyed studying and had avoided it when possible; a wife who knew more than he did would be intolerable. But they said she was beautiful; and if she should choose him after refusing the Archduke Charles he would be delighted with her.
The Baron was giving him some uneasy glances. He was afraid he would give himself away, afraid he would show that arrogance which was always ready to appear at an imagined slight. If he betrayed the fact that Monsieur de Busch, the name under which it had been decided he should travel, was in fact George Augustus, Electoral Prince of Hanover, the news that he was wooing Caroline of Ansbach would be all over Europe in a very short time.
"You needn't look at me like that, von Eltz," said George Augustus. "I'll play my part."
The days were long. Caroline could settle to nothing. She could not go on in this way. She had no desire to return to Lutzenburg which the King of Prussia had now renamed Charlottenburg after his wife. She had never had any love for the King of Prussia. She would stay here with her brother until her grief grew less acute—if it ever did.
She spent long hours in the Hofgarten remembering the past because the future was too painful to contemplate.
Sometimes she rode through the streets of the town, through the narrow streets, past the little houses from the windows of which people leaned out to see her go by. They called affectionate greetings. They loved her the more because she had refused marriage with the Archduke Charles. She had given up a possible empire and a crown for the sake of her faith. That was how they saw it and it seemed an admirable thing to have done.
"Long live our Princess," they called. "Good fortune to Your Serene Highness."
She smiled her sad smile and they understood her sadness and loved her for that too.
William Frederick said to her one day: "You'll be ill if you go on grieving in this way. I suggest we leave this place and take a short holiday at Triesdorf. It will be beautiful there at this time of year."
Listlessly Caroline agreed to accompany him to their summer home and they had been there only a few weeks when the Margrave came to his sister's room to tell her about the new arrivals.
"Two gentlemen have come from Hanover. They bring letters from the Count von Platen, the Hanoverian Prime Minister, asking us to be kind to these two travellers."
Caroline said, "Must I see them?"
"It would seem discourteous not to as there are these letters from Platen."
"That's true, and I might hear news of the Electress. I wonder she did not give them a message to bring to me."
"Perhaps she did not know they were coming. She wouldn't since they are merely noblemen travelling for their own pleasure."
"I will come down this evening," said Caroline.
So she met George Augustus, not knowing that he was other than Monsieur de Busch.
He bowed, and murmured that he was overwhelmed by the honour and that it was a great moment for them.
She replied that he was welcome. She was delighted to see anyone from Hanover and she hoped he might give her news of the Electress Sophia.
He believed he could do that.
The travellers were entertained in a homely and intimate manner for the Margrave did not live in the same state in his summer residence as he did at the Palace of Ansbach.