‘Your Majesty, there is every reason....’
‘I see none. I see none.’
Walpole left the King in disgust and dismay; he knew that he had to be brought round to his point of view.
The Prince was not entirely downcast to have lost the support of the Commons, for his friends, led by Chesterfield, promised to bring up the matter in the House of Lords; this they did and although here they were defeated again it was by a small majority and it became clear that public opinion was on the side of the Prince.
Walpole enlisted the support of his ministers to force the King to keep to his bargain and make the allowance he had promised.
The King was furious. ‘The motion has been defeated by the Parliament,’ he insisted.
‘But only, Your Majesty, because of your promise to meet the Prince half way.’
‘Half way! Half way! ‘ cried the King. ‘That is it, this government is too half-hearted.’
The Queen, who to Walpole’s surprise was not on his side, added her voice to the King’s and murmured that if the Whigs could be so little depended on, it might be time to see what the Tories could do.
This shook Walpole, because his majority in the house was so small and he knew that it would take very little to bring him to defeat, and that would mean the defeat of the Whigs, and a Tory ministry.
Moreover he knew that Lady Sundon’s influence with the Queen was growing stronger, and Lady Sundon had always been his enemy.
Lord Hervey, Heaven knew, was deep in her confidence, but Walpole believed Lady Sundon had some hold over the Queen which even Hervey knew nothing about.
It was an anxious time. And of course soon they would be hearing that the King wanted to go to Hanover, for although he did not mention Madame de Walmoden, he was still writing to her; and Walpole had reason to believe that he was as much enthralled as ever by that woman.
In fact the Queen had no intention of breaking her alliance with Walpole. She respected and admired him too much; but she thought there was no harm done in letting him believe that unless he supported her and the King with all his power she was dissatisfied with him.
‘There is one good thing which has come out of this trouble with the Prince,’ said Walpole to her one day.
‘I can see nothing good in anything the Prince does,’ replied Caroline.
‘He is restive; he is ready to take strong action should the opportunity be offered to him.’
‘What opportunity?’
‘If the King should go to Hanover. I foresee fatal consequences if the King left the country at this time.’
This was a matter in which the Queen and her minister were in complete agreement.
Oddly enough, strong as was the desire to be with his mistress, the King saw the point of this too.
The Queen was in her apartments when a letter was brought to her from the Prince. The sight of his handwriting always displeased her and hastily she read its contents, wondering what fresh trouble this might mean.
As she read she was saying to herself: ‘I don’t believe it. It’s a lie.’
She threw the letter on to the table. The Princess Augusta pregnant. There was no doubt about this, wrote the Prince, and he hastened to tell his mother the joyful news.
Joyful news indeed! He had his income; he had his wife; and now they were going to produce a child.
She went to the King and said she must speak to him alone.
Then she showed him the letter; his eyes blazed with anger.
‘It is a lie. He is incapable of getting children. He is an insolent, lying puppy! ‘
‘Do you think this is a plot to foist a spurious child on us?’
‘It is such a plan,’ declared the King.
‘It could well be. I have thought the Prince to be impotent. FitzFrederick was Hervey’s. “Why,” I said to Hervey, when Molly Lepel’s young William was presented to me ... “that could be FitzFrederick’s twin.”’
‘It’s a plot ... and it shall not succeed. I will command that he and the Princess live under our roof and we will see the progress of this pregnancy.’
‘And I shall be present when the child is born,’ declared the Queen. ‘I shall not allow William to be done out of his rights.’
The Prince knew what was said of him and jeered at his parents. They wanted to pass him over in favour of that insufferable brother of his. Well, thank God the English people were behind him and he was not surprised at that, for he had always loved England. He was not like his father running off to Hanover at every possible moment and declaring his dislike of everything English. The Prince could not understand why the English tolerated such a King.
He disagreed with everything the King said and did. Augusta, the meek little wife, supported her husband. He was the best husband in the world, she declared; and when the time came—and every right-thinking man and woman in England prayed that time would not be long in coming —he would make the best King in the world.
‘My child shall be born in St James’s Palace,’ declared the Prince. The Princess and I have made up our minds about that.’
‘The child shall be born where I am at that time,’ declared the King, ‘and as it will be summer that will be at Hampton Court.’
‘I say St James’s Palace,’ said the Prince.
‘I say Hampton Court,’ retorted the King.
The Queen’s comment was: ‘Wherever it is I shall be there. I am going to see the entry of this child into the world.’
The Court was at Hampton for the summer and the Prince and Princess were obliged to have their apartments there.
On those occasions when the Prince had to be in the company of his father, the King behaved as though he didn’t see his son; and the Prince declared again and again that he resented his parents’ attitude; and as for his mother’s being present at the birth, he was determined she was not going to be and he was as insistent that the child would be born at St James’s as they were it should be born at Hampton.
‘In this,’ he said to Augusta, ‘they see a symbol. Heirs to the throne should be born at St James’s and they want to pretend even at this late date that our child will never ascend the throne and that it will go to that dreadful William—on whom they dote.’
‘You are right, Frederick,’ said Augusta.
‘And I am going to outwit them.’
‘How?’
‘You will see. Leave everything to me.’
‘Oh, yes, Frederick.’
‘All you have to do is as I say. By September I shall have you installed in St James’s, never fear.’
The Prince was with his friends on the last day of July when one of the Princess’s women came hurrying into the room in a state of agitation.
‘Your Highness,’ she said, ‘please come at once to the Princess.’
Frederick hurried to his wife’s apartments to find her sitting on the bed looking frightened.
‘My pains have started,’ she said. ‘What shall I do?’ ‘It can’t be ... it’s two months too early.’
‘But Frederick, I’m sure ...’ She broke off to cry out.
One of the women said: ‘The pains are coming fairly frequently, Your Highness. That means that the baby will soon be born.’
‘Not here,’ cried Frederick. ‘Not here at Hampton.’ ‘There is no help for it, Your Highness.’
‘But there is,’ cried Frederick. ‘Have the coach made ready. We are leaving without delay for St James’s.’
The Princess’s pains were increasing with every minute. Lady Archibald Hamilton said: ‘Your Highness cannot move her now. It is too late.’