Queen [to the first Court Lady]. I believe you found it very dusty. First Court Lady. Very dusty, Madam. Queen [to the second Court Lady]. Do you go soon into the country, Madam? Second Court Lady. Very soon, Madam. Queen [to the third Court Lady]. The town is very empty, I believe, Madam? Third Court Lady. Very empty, Madam. Queen [to the fourth Court Lady]. I hope all your family is very well, Madam. Fourth Court Lady. Very well, Madam. Queen [to the fifth Court Lady]. We have had the finest summer for walking in the world. Fifth Court Lady. Very fine, Madam. Queen [to the Duchess of Hamilton]. One cannot help wishing you joy, Madam, every time one sees you, of the good matches your daughters have made. Duchess of Hamilton. Considering how they behaved, I wonder indeed they had any matches at all; but for any other two women of quality, one should think it no great catch for one to be married to a fool and t'other to a beggar.24 Queen. Oh fie, fie! my good Duchess! One cannot help laughing, you are so lively; but your expressions are very strong. Queen [to the Duchess of Rutland 25]. Come, come, my good Duchess, one is always glad to see you. Duchess of Rutland. Your Majesty is always very kind to an old woman and a poor widow, that you are so good to let torment you about her children: and, Madam, I must beg your Majesty [whispers to the Queen]. 24 Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Lord Gerard. She died in 1744, aged 63, having had seven children. Her eldest daughter, Lady Charlotte Hamilton, married, 1 May, 1736, Charles Edwin, Esq., and Lady Susan, Anthony Tracy Keck, Esq., 16th August of the same year. The former was the "fool," and the latter the "beggar." 25 Lucy Bennett, sister of the first Lord Harborough, widow of the second Duke of Rutland, who died in 1721, leaving her six sons and two daughters. Princess Caroline [at the other end of the room, to the Duke of Grafton]. I vow I think it is very brutal to laugh at such things. Duke of Grafton. Dans ce monde, il faut-il faut-il faut 26 -se consoler dans tous les malheurs. [To the Duke of Newcastle.] Have you cried for my Lord Hervey? Princess Caroline says one should-one should-shed a little tear for my Lord Hervey. Princess Car. I say no such thing. I said there was not de quoi rire for anybody; and that, for my own part, I am very sorry; and that he used to entertain me very often. Duke of Graft. Well, I knew people used to say--and that— of his wit; but, upon my word, it may be, perhaps you know everybody does not just alike, and so-in those things-or may be, when I saw him--but I swear then-entertaining and all that why now, Madame la Princesse, it did not, I own, strike me; and there was something-I don't know how to say it but, in short, you know what I mean. Princess Emily. Well, I swear I think now the Duke of Grafton is in the right: to be sure there was a vivacity, and a great many words, and all that-mais je vous jure que le tout ensemble ne me plaisoit pas. Duke of Newcastle [picking his nose, his ears, his teeth, &c., one after another]. Well said, Madame la Princesse! I think the Princess Emily has hit that off well: there was, to be sure, things in him, but altogether it did not do well; at least, it did not please me and there was something, I don't know how to describe it, and perhaps I may be told I am prejudiced, and therefore Duke of Graft. Why now there is Chesterfield-I don't love Chesterfield but then my Lord Chesterfield has-has-my Lord Chesterfield has certainly wit—and that Duke of Newc. Well, I think Chesterfield has ten times more wit than my Lord Hervey; and in the House of Lords, though Sir Robert, you know, is partial to one and against the other, in my opinion there is no comparison. 26 Lord Hervey elsewhere mentions "the hesitating lips of the Duke of Grafton." Queen [comes up to the Dukes of Grafton and Newcastle]. You are talking of poor my Lord Hervey, I believe; well, I am sure now the Duke of Grafton is very sorry, for au fond the Duke of de Grafton is not what one calls hard-je l'ai toujours dit. Duke of Graft. Your Majesty will want him by your chaise a hunting-oh! no-I think he did not hunt of late. Queen. No, my Lord, he did not hunt; but though he did not love nor understand hunting so well as votre Grace, there are many occasions in which I shall want him very much; the King will want him too. Do you not think so, Duke of Newcastle? Duke of Newc. I think the King can't want a Vice-Chamberlain; I dare say his Majesty will find people enough will be glad of the office. Queen. I must say, my good Duke of Newcastle, this is une très platte réponse-to be sure, the King will find Vice-Chamberlains enough, though my Lord Hervey is dead; as he would find Secretaries of State enough, if we had the misfortune to lose our good friend Permis; but I dare say he would never find such another Duke of Newc. As which? Queen. Just as you please; I leave it with you. Enter Lord GRANTHAM in a hurry. Lord Grantham. Ah! dere is my Lord Hervey in your Majesty gallery; he is in de frock and de bob,28 or he should have come in. Queen. Mon Dieu! My Lord Grantham, you are mad! Lord Grant. He is dere, all so live as he was; and has play de trick to see as we should all say. Queen. Then he is mad-allons voir qu'est ce que c'est que [Exeunt omnes. tout ceci. 27 A nickname in the Queen's circle for the Duke of Newcastle, from his habit of addressing the Royal Ladies with "Est-il permis?" 28 In a frock-coat and bob-wig-not a court dress. CHAPTER XXVI. The King's return delayed-The Queen's patience exhausted, but persuaded by Walpole and Lord Hervey to invite Madame de Walmoden over-Correspondence between the King and Queen on this subject— Public impatience at the King's stay-Pasquinades-Indecent and undutiful behaviour of the Prince-Characters of the Princes and Princesses. THE Queen's temper and patience under the King's neglect held out tolerably well till it came to be sure that his stay at Hanover would be protracted beyond his birthday. But this being a mark of his indifference to her, and the strength of his attachment to another, with which she had never before been mortified, she began to deviate a little from the general resolution she before seemed to have taken, of submitting to every slight her husband thought fit to put upon her, not only without resenting or murmuring, but even without seeming to feel or see it. She began to slacken in her assiduity towards his Majesty in her letters and the length of them; the thirty or forty pages, which used to be their usual length, were shrunk to seven or eight; and it is probable that the style (though this is only conjecture) abated as much of its cordiality as the bulk of its quantity. Lord Hervey had observed these alterations and disapproved them; but as the Queen had always spoken of this amour of the King's with Madame Walmoden as a thing she despised, and that Lord Hervey back again had talked of it as a thing below her regard, and often turned every circumstance of it into ridicule, his Lordship did not now care to risk the taking it on a more serious tone, or to seem to observe that her Majesty had done so, when she had not thought fit to give the least hint of this alteration either in her way of acting or thinking; nor was there perhaps any in the latter, though there was in the former. However, as he apprehended such a change would weaken her interest yet more with the King rather than retrieve it, Lord Hervey told Sir Robert Walpole what he had remarked, and begged him somehow or other to prevent her going on in a way that would certainly destroy her. Sir Robert Walpole said nothing could ever quite destroy her power with the King, though several things might happen temporarily to weaken her influence or to make the exercise of it more difficult. Lord Hervey replied that he knew but two ways any woman had of keeping her power with any man, which were by the man's fondness for her person or by habit; that, as to the first, it was very plain that cement no longer subsisted to unite the King and Queen ; and that, for the other, these frequent absences, he feared, would bring habit to operate with no more force than inclination, especially when the King found whenever he broke into this habit of being with his wife, it was for his pleasure; and whenever he returned to it, that it proved for his mortification. Sir Robert Walpole allowed all this to be very true, but insisted still that the Queen had by a long course of years, and by the King's opinion of her understanding, as well as security in her truth to him, got such an ascendant over |