‘A plague on them all,’ he muttered. He wanted to be young again… in Hanover, with Caroline his young wife. The happy days, he thought of them, letting memory skilfully paint them in bright colours for him. Caroline… Caroline… no woman worthy to… Amalia Walmoden was a wonderful woman… his Countess of Yarmouth… she would offer him some comfort for the loss of his Caroline.
But now there was this fellow… this Cumberland… this Willie come home… in disgrace. ‘Yes, sir, disgrace, I say. You lost Hanover… the home of our fathers… and you lost it.’
It was the only way he could bear to look at it. Though it had seemed the only alternative they had had to save Bremen and Verden. They had had to save the army. It was either that or Hanover.
‘Yes, yes… but I could not have lost Hanover, Caroline, could I? You would see that. Didn’t you always see everything.’
He looked at his watch. He was to go and play cards with the Princess Amelie, his daughter as he always did. If he did not hurry he would be late. Unthinkable. He was never late.
Amelie… Emily as they called her in the family… she was getting old now, and she was sour. She had wanted Grafton. It had caused her mother some concern the way Emily had run after Grafton. Perhaps they should have found a husband for her. It was difficult with Princesses… not much royalty left abroad and it had to be Protestant royalty, which limited the choice. Either that or someone at home. The girls ought to have been given Englishmen. Why not? That would have been better than letting them go unmarried and turn sour like Emily.
She greeted him with a show of affection when he reached her apartments. The cards were ready.
‘Come,’ he said, ‘let us play.’
‘We are ready, Father,’ Emily replied.
He said quietly: ‘Your brother is in the palace.’
‘I know, Father.’
‘He’ll be coming to cards tonight. Don’t leave me alone with him.’
‘No, Father.’
‘It’s an order.’
‘Yes, Your Majesty.’
The game began and when the Duke of Cumberland came into the room the King did not look up, but he was aware of him, for he muttered: ‘Here is my son who has ruined me and disgraced himself.’
The Duke of Cumberland was scarlet with mortification, but he could not approach his father unless given permission to do so and after that remark the King gave no sign that he was aware of him but stolidly went on playing cards. Nor could the Duke leave the assembly until the King rose and dismissed the company by his departure.
It was eleven o’clock and as soon as the King had left the card-room the Duke went at once to the apartments of the King’s mistress, the Countess of Yarmouth.
The Countess was an inoffensive woman whose main purpose was to please the King and keep her position; she made few demands on him and this was why she held her place. She was a little avaricious, but apart from trying to make money by selling honours she had few vices. She therefore received the Duke kindly for she was eager to help him, knowing that he had been unjustly accused.
‘Madam,’ said the Duke, ‘I have come to ask a favour of you.’
‘My dear Duke,’ she replied, ‘you know I will do everything in my power to help you.’
‘My father will listen to you. I want you to break this news to him as agreeably as possible that I am resigning my post as Captain-General and the command of my regiment.’
‘Oh no, you cannot. It is too much.’
‘In the circumstances, Madam, there is nothing else I can do.’
‘I pray you don’t make this decision so hastily. Give yourself time to think.’
‘Begging your pardon, Madam,’ he replied, ‘I have not come here to ask your advice, though it is kind of you to offer it. I merely wish you to pass on this news to the King in the manner less likely to disturb him.’
‘I wish to help… and since you ask me this… I can only do it. But I think perhaps you are over hasty.’
‘I have been falsely accused, Madam. I have no alternative but to resign.’
‘Then there is nothing I can do but obey your wishes.’
The King arrived at his mistress’s apartments at the appointed time.
He saw at once that she was distressed and that did not please him. He had come to her for comfort, not to be fretted. He frowned but she said: ‘I must tell Your-Majesty at once that the Duke of Cumberland has been to see me.’
‘The puppy!’
‘Sire, he is determined to resign his post. That is what he has asked me to tell you.’
The King’s face grew purple. ‘This will be a nice scandal. He must be stopped.’
‘He seemed determined,’ said the Countess, her face puckered with anxiety. ‘But Your Majesty has had a trying day. Should you not shelve the matter until you have… rested.’
The King looked at his watch. He did not intend to spoil this meeting with his mistress.
‘The puppy will have to be brought to heel,’ he said.
‘I am sure Your Majesty will soon have him where you wish him to be.’
This was her most attractive quality: she always made him feel a wise and great man. In fact he felt more comfortable with her than he had with Caroline, although he would not admit that now.
‘I’ll deal with him,’ he said; and shelved the matter as she had hoped he would.
What a soothing, tender creature she was. He was lucky to have found her!
The King wanted no trouble. He demanded that ‘secret papers’ be brought to him and he feigned to study them. He then announced that he thought better of the Duke of Cumberland than he had, and he believed that there was no need to continue with this farce of a resignation.
But the Duke was determined. He would treat his father with the respect due to a King, for he was a royalist by nature; and having seen the ill effects of quarrels on the royal family’s prestige he did not want to add to that.
He had nevertheless made up his mind that he could no longer talce a command in an army in which he was obliged to obey the orders from the Council and his father, and then take the blame when they were unsuccessful.
He had been deeply wounded; he saw only one course of action open to him: resignation; and nothing was going to prevent his taking it.
The Duke of Cumberland had resigned. The hero-villain of Culloden was no longer in command of the army.
His passion in life had been the army and now he was no longer of it. The action of his father had made it impossible for him to retain his position. But this was no family quarrel. The Duke robbed of his position, of his career through the action of his father, continued to pay him the utmost homage in public.
He now turned appealingly to his nephew. He hoped that the Prince of Wales would allow him to bestow on him that affection which he yearned to give.
The Princess and Lord Bute told themselves that they must watch the Duke of Cumberland.
Joshua Reynolds calls
THE PRINCE OF Wales was very proud of having a daughter and could not resist talking of her to those in the secret.