'WHERE'S YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER?"

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granddaughter? Then followed a sharp shower of hisses, and according to Lord Grey, 'there was no form of reproach that did not assail her ears.'

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CHAPTER VII.

The Princess of Wales Determines to leave England-The Opinion of her Friends-The Regent Rejoices-Her Departure-The Princess Charlotte's Marriage-Prince Leopold and the Mob-The Marriage CeremonyBrief Illness and Death-Sorrow of the NationIndignations against the Queen and Prince-Marriages of the Royal Dukes-Death of the Queen--The last Days of the King-His Death.

HE Princess of Wales, worn out by humilia

THES

tions, petty persecutions, and trials, resolved to leave England and travel on the Continent for some time. This plan was opposed by most of her friends, and especially by Mr. Brougham, who told her that as long as she stayed in this country he would answer that no plot could succeed against her, but living abroad she would be surrounded by spies and tools of her enemies, ready to swear or invent as they were directed. 'In England,' he wrote to her,

BROUGHAM'S WARNING.

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'spies and false witnesses can do nothing; abroad everything may be apprehended from them. Depend upon it, madame, there are many persons who now begin to see a chance of divorcing you from the prince.'

But the princess would not listen to his advice; she was exhausted by constant agitation and fears, and weary of a country in which she never had one day's happiness; she therefore drew up a letter to Lord Liverpool, informing him of her desire to go abroad, and inquiring if there would be any opposition on the part of the ministry to her fulfilling her intentions; to which his lordship, by order of the regent, declared there was none. This unusual accession to his request, together with the promptness and civility of the answer, should have been sufficient to make her suspicious of the wisdom of her scheme. Whether it had this effect or not, she at once prepared for her journey, and wished to make over her house at Blackheath to her daughter. When this desire was made known to the regent, he caused her to be informed that the Princess Caroline would never be permitted to reside in a house which had

once been occupied by the Princess of Wales.

Before leaving England, the government made her a grant of £50,000 a year, which was a boon to one who had frequently been in debt and in many pecuniary difficulties, to redeem herself from which she had been obliged to sell her plate, and occasionally some of her jewels. 'I have found a pair of old earrings,' she once wrote to a friend of hers, which the devil of a queen once gifted me with. I truly believed that the sapphires ar fals as her heart and soul is, but the diamonds are good, and £50 or £80 would be very acceptable for them indeed.' Though she had made up her mind to leave England, yet she was not aware of the danger she was about to risk; and, before starting, she wrote to Canning that if any machinations were going on against her, were it only a whisper, she would quickly return and defend her innocence. This letter was shown to the regent, who, to throw her off her guard, falsely declared no such thing was intended. His royal soul was now almost overpowered with joy at the prospect of getting rid of his wife; and, in order to celebrate her departure, he entertained some

'TO THE PRINCESS OF WALES.

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choice spirits at dinner, after which, being probably drunk at the time, he gave the toast, To the Princess of Wales, damnation, and may she never return to England.'

The princess, being prepared for her journey, went to Worthing, where she was to embark, and where she was permitted to have a brief interview with her daughter, whom she was destined never again to see in this world. Her spirits on the eve of this journey, to which she had looked forward with much expectation, became miserably depressed and gloomy, and she would sit for hours at night on the beach looking out at sea, silent and thoughtful, as if filled with melancholy presentiments.

6

Ah, well,' she said once, starting from one of these reveries, grief is unavailing when fate compels me.'

Her suite consisted of Lady Charlotte Lindsey, Lady Elizabeth Forbes, Sir William Gell, Dr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Holland, and Mr. St. Leger, besides their attendants. On the morning of August 9, 1814, she drove to the Worthing beach, dressed in a dark cloth pelisse, with large gold clasps, and a cap of velvet