upon his tablets as "absurd, ridiculous, ill-mannered, and méchante." "How did you find the little one ?" said she, alluding thereby to the Princess. "Rather old as she is, her education is not yet finished." Lord Malmesbury felt the

taunt, but parried it and thrust en carte, with the remark, that "at an age far beyond that of her royal highness, persons might be found in whom the education of which she spoke had not even begun."

CHAPTER II.

THE NEW HOME.

The Princess desires to have Lord Malmesbury for her lord chamberlain-The Duchess a coarse-minded woman-The Duke of Clarence her bitter enemy -The Duke and Duchess's caution to Lord Malmesbury, and his dignified reply-The Abbess of Gandersheim's opinion of mankind - Difficult question proposed by the Princess, and Lord Malmesbury's gallant reply -The Abbess without human sympathy-A state dinner, and a mischievous anonymous letter-The Princess's departure for England - Her indifference to money-Instances-Ignorance of the Duchess-Difficulties of the journey-The Princess's design to reform the Prince of WalesIndefatigable care of Lord Malmesbury-Story of the Princess at Hanover -Care as to her toilette recommended-Presents given by the Princess— Her arrival in England-Ridiculed by Lady Jersey-Reproof administered to her ladyship by Lord Malmesbury-The first interview of the Prince and Princess-Cold reception of the bride-Flippant conduct of the Princess-Lord Malmesbury reproached by the Prince of Wales.

Ir is to the credit of the Princess Caroline that she took in such good part all that Lord Malmesbury told her, and that she was desirous of having him appointed her lord chamberlain ; a prematurely expressed desire which did her honour, gratified the object of it, and was never realised. She, no doubt, respected him, for the advice he gave her was not only parental, but much of it might have come from a tender and affectionate mother. But her mother was a coarse-minded, weak hearted woman, who had little regard for propriety, was not affected by the disregard of it in her husband, and who told stories at table, in her daughter's presence, that would have called up a blush of shame, if not of indignation, on the cheek of a dragoon.

It was after such stories that Lord Malmesbury particularly enjoined the Princess, if she cared to please, to commune much with herself, and to think deeply before she spoke. Her family was a strange one, but not stranger, in many respects, than that into which she was going. Her admission there, indeed,

at all was, perhaps, a consequence of hate rather than of love. Prince William, Duke of Clarence, had been among the first to speak of the Princess Caroline of Brunswick as a wife for the Prince of Wales. He had been led to do this because he hated the Duchess of York, knew that the Princess and Duchess hated each other, and felt sure that the marriage of the former with the heir to the throne would be wormwood to the Duchess. By what amiable motives are little-minded people in all ranks of life influenced! The Duke of Clarence was, ultimately, one of the bitterest and the most unreasonable of the enemies of this very Princess whom he had helped to drag up to greatness.

With regard to the feelings of the Princess against the excellent Duchess of York, the envoy endeavoured to turn them into a sentiment of respect for one who was worthy of such homage. Indeed, he was so indefatigable with his counsel, that the ducal parents became fearful lest there might be even too much of it for his own profit, if not for their daughter's good. It was suggested to him that the Princess, in a moment of fondness, might communicate to the Prince all he had said to her, and so he "would run the risk of getting into a scrape" with his royal highness on his return. Lord Malmesbury, who was the envoy of the King and not of the Prince, replied with readiness, dignity, and effect. "I replied," he said, "that luckily I was in a situation not to want the Prince's favour; that it was of infinitely more consequence to the public, and even to me (in the rank I filled in its service), that the Princess of Wales should honour and become her high situation, recover the dignity and respect due to our princes and royal family, which had, of late, been so much and so dangerously let down by their mixing so indiscriminately with their inferiors, than that I should have the emoluments and advantages of a favourite at Carlton House; and that idea was so impressed on my mind that I should certainly say to the Prince everything I had said to the Princess Caroline." He had a difficult pupil in the latter lady. After a whole page of record touching how important it was that she should practise reserve and dignity, we remark the condemnatory entry: "Concert in the evening;

the Princess Caroline talks very much-quite at her ease-too much so."

In another chapter of the family romance, we find the aunt of the Princess-the Abbess of Gandersheim-exhorting her niece to put no trust in men at all; assuring her that her husband would deceive her; that she would not be happy; "and all the nonsense of an envious and a desiring old maid." The gaiety of the Princess was eclipsed, for a moment, by the chill cloud thrown across it by the remarks of her aunt. The envoy, however, restored the ordinary sunshine by requesting the Princess, the next time the Abbess held similar discourse, to ask her whether, if she proposed to give up the Prince to her aunt, and take the Abbey of Gandersheim in place thereof, she would then "think men to be such monsters, and whether she would not expose herself to all the dangers and misfortunes of such a marriage ?" This sally, with good counsel to garnish it, not only restored the good-humour of the Princess, but made her more desirous than ever to attach the envoy personally to her service as soon as her household, as Princess of Wales, should be established. Lord Malmesbury avoided an explicit answer, but entreated her not to solicit anything in his behalf. "I had," he says, "the Duke of Suffolk and Queen Margaret in my thoughts." He, further, was more anxious than ever with reference to the results of this marriage. With a steady man, he thought, the impulsive bride might have a chance of bliss ; but with one that was not so, he saw that her risks were many and great indeed. In the meanwhile he poured counsel into her mind, as Mr. Gradgrind used to pour facts into the juvenile intellect at Coketown-by the imperial gallon. The Princess continued to take it all well, but the giver of it was shrewd enough to see that, "in the long run, it must displease." He was right in his conclusion, for the night after he expressed the conviction, the Princess remarked, on some grave monition of his, that she should never learn it all, and that she was too light-minded ever to do so.

Ward and guardian had been running a parallel between the former and her sister-in-law, younger than herself, the here

ditary Princess of Brunswick. The Princess Caroline had asked Lord Malmesbury, which he thought would make the better Princess of Wales, herself or her sister-in-law? To this difficult question the envoy replied gallantly, that he knew which would be the Prince's choice; that she possessed by nature what the hereditary Princess neither had, nor could ever acquire-beauty and grace. He added, in his character of Mentor, "that all the essential qualities the hereditary Princess has, she might attain-prudence, discretion, attention, and tact.". "Do I want them ?"-" You cannot have too much of them.". "How comes my sister-in-law, who is younger than myself, to have them more than I?"" Because, at a very early period of her life, her family was in danger; she was brought up to exertion of the mind, and she now derives the benefit d'avoir mangé son pain bis le premier !”. "I shall never learn this," was the remark of the Princess, with some confession of her defects. Lord Malmesbury encouraged her by saying, that when she found herself in a different situation she would be prepared for its exigencies if she questioned and communed deeply with herself now. In short, he gave excellent advice, and if counsel could have cured the radical defects of a vicious education, Caroline would have crossed the seas to her new home peerless among brides.

But Mentor's chance of success in perfecting this wayward pupil was rendered all the less by the slander heaped upon Lord Malmesbury, his character, and his motives, by the old aunt of the Princess. It is difficult to believe in the existence of such a being; but she was an aunt who found sufficient ground for hating her nieces, if she saw them happy. She loved to dash their hopes of felicity. She found a luxury in setting her relatives by the ears. She had not a human sympathy in her heart for any human being; and, if ever she did commit a generous action, it was not for the sake of benefiting the recipient of her apparent kindness, but to excite jealousy or disappointment in others. She was open to flattery, yet crafty enough to discern it, and sometimes self-denying enough to despise it. She loved no human being, was by no human