"You can see very well what is going to happen," she declared. "Everything in this place will become German. It is always the same with these Germans. They want to impose their dullness on everyone else. I shall be looking like a hausfrau very soon and so will the rest of you, and there will be no entertainment but music ... music ... music. And worse still, no one will be able to approach the Queen except through Schwellenburg.”
"The Queen seems to want to give the loathsome creature a special place in her household, so what can we do about it?" asked the Duchess of Ancaster.
"Plenty," reported Elizabeth Chudleigh; and proceeded to act. Under her devious and expert direction the knowledge soon reached the ears of the Princess Dowager that Mademoiselle von Schwellenburg had a great influence with the Queen, that she gave her orders in the Queen's apartment and that the English maids of honour were in revolt.
Miss Chudleigh was summoned to the Princess's apartment and gave her opinion that Mademoiselle von Schwellenburg was an ambitious woman and she was certain that in her odious German, in which she chattered volubly, she was making all sorts of plans to run the Court in accordance with her German ideas. One could trust Miss Chudleigh to scent trouble even if one could trust her in no other way; and the Princess Dowager graciously thanked her, implying she would be grateful for more news, that it would be well for Miss Chudleigh to work faiths fully for her since her position at Court was a somewhat precarious one, owing to her rather dubious relationship with the Duke of Kingston. To which implication Miss Chudleigh responded with equal grace and innuendo. She was in possession of some secrets concerning the King and a certain Quaker lady; and she did having helped to arrange that affair know a little more about it than most; and she was sure that in the hands of the scribblers and lampoonists it would make a story that would not amuse but shock the people of England; but she was keeping quiet because, just as the Princess Dowager wished to please her, so did she wish to retain the esteem of the Princess Dowager.
The Princess Dowager inclined her head in acknowledgement of a delicate situation. Elizabeth Chudleigh's place was safe at Court however disreputably she behaved; though Elizabeth Chudleigh would do well to remember that there were some limits beyond which a Princess would not go even to avoid involving her son in a hideous scandal. The situation was clearly understood between them; and as in moments of uncertainty, as the Princess Dowager had always done, she sent for Lord Bute.
He came quickly. She looked at him anxiously, wondering if he were changing. Was he a little less devoted? Did he spend more time with the King than with her? Naturally he must keep his eyes on the King for all their sakes, but was he slightly less attentive to her than in the past? And had the change come about since George's elevation to the throne?
As he bent and kissed her she felt it was unworthy of her to entertain such thoughts for a moment.
She was not a promiscuous woman; she did not seek a host of lovers; the liaison between herself and Lord Bute was as a marriage, lacking nothing but the benefit of clergy. She could trust him and he could trust her. Their goal was the same and they would march together towards it.
"Disturbing news, dearest, from the Chudleigh woman.”
"Trust her to scent trouble.”
"She has her uses ... if one can trust her.”
"Ah, if one can trust her! What's the trouble now?”
"Schwellenburg; she is giving herself airs, making trouble with the other women and in fact setting herself up as a little queen. You know what that can mean. Very soon she will be selling honours; she will be making Charlotte the centre of a coterie of power. You know the signs.”
"I know them full well. With the shining example of Sarah Churchill not far behind us we have good reason to be suspicious of these ambitious women near a queen. But with this one the answer should be simple.”
"What do you have in mind?”
"Send her packing.”
The Princess Dowager laughed. "Trust you to find the solution. Why didn't I think of it?”
"Because you thought to please me by letting me suggest it." She gave him a tender look.
"We had better go to see George about it, and suggest it would be better if Schwellenburg left.”
"We'll ask him to come here.”
"My dear! Sometimes I think you forget he is the King." He turned to her and there was a fierceness in his look which, while it alarmed her slightly, delighted her.
"He is still our George. Nothing can alter that. We will ask him to come here.”
Yes, she thought as he ordered a page to go to the King and request his presence in his mother's apartment, her dear Lord Bute had become more sure of himself since the King's accession.
"I do not think," said George, 'that Charlotte will care to relinquish that woman. She came from Germany with her. It is natural that she should want to keep her.”
"It is a situation all Princesses have to face," his mother pointed out. "We come with our attendants and after a while must do without them. Moreover, Schwellenburg is making trouble with the other women.”
"It is better to have a peaceful atmosphere in the Queen's apartments," said Bute softly. "It is better for the Queen.”
"Yes, I suppose so," sighed George. "But I don't care to ask Charlotte to give up this woman.”
"Your Majesty need not distress yourself on that score," said Bute promptly. "What are your subjects for but to do that work which is distasteful to Your Majesty?”
He smiled at the Princess Dowager as though to say: See how easily our battles are won?
**** Mademoiselle von Schwellenburg was incensed. "But, Madam, this is monstrous. This cannot be.
They will send me away. Who will care for you? I... only I... know how to do that! I came with you from Germany...”
Charlotte said: "This is nonsense. Who says you are to go?”
"It is orders. They come from the King. I am to go, to leave the Palace within a few days. My transport is provided. Back to Mecklenburg, they say. Oh, no, no, it is impossible.”
Charlotte was aghast. Not so much at the prospect of losing Schwellenburg, whose overbearing ways were often hard to bear, but that her dismissal should have been decided on without reference to herself. She went to the King and asked him what this meant; and what was her position here in England if she could not decide who should be her own servants.
George looked embarrassed. "It is the custom," he explained, 'for foreign servants to go back to their homes after a certain period. They come, you see, to help you settle in. Well, now I should say you had settled in, wouldn't you?”
"I do not understand this. I do not wish Schwellenburg to go ... unless I myself dismiss her. Tell me this, pray. Was it your mother who asked you to order this ?”
George admitted that this was so.
"Then will you ask her to come here so that I can hear the reasons from her lips.”
"You make too much of this, Charlotte. You shall have other women to replace her... women who understand our ways.”
"All the same I wish to speak to the Princess Dowager in your presence.”
George looked uneasy. He hoped Charlotte was not going to turn into a virago, just as he had been congratulating himself that he had acquired a pleasant, docile wife. But he wanted to please her; and secretly he could see her point. After all, as Queen she should be allowed to choose her servants surely.
The Princess Dowager came with Lord Bute at the King's summons, and when they saw Charlotte's distress they knew the reason for it.
"Her Majesty is concerned," the King explained, 'that you should have asked for the dismissal of Mademoiselle von Schwellenburg.”