‘She is vithout power.’
‘She is on the spot. And the King of Prussia may yell make a big offer for the vill.’
‘I vill send a trusted man at vonce.’
‘And I vill write to the Duchess assuring her of my friendship. It vould be yell if she came back to England ... and quickly.’
The King despatched a messenger without delay and the Queen went to her apartments and immediately wrote to the Duchess.
‘My first thought, my dear Duchess, has been of you in the misfortune which has befallen us; I know well your devotion and love for the late King, and I fear for your health; only the resignation which you have always shown to the divine will can sustain you under such a loss. I wish I could convey to you how much I feel for you, and how anxious I am about your health, but it is impossible for me to do so adequately. I cannot tell you how greatly this trouble has affected me ...’
Caroline paused to smile cynically. What joy it had brought! No more to he plagued by that old scoundrel, to have her children with her. Would poor Ermengarda see through this hypocrisy? Not she! She had always been simple—except in money matters. Ah, there was the point. If she knew of the existence of that will, she would guess that she would be one of the main beneficiaries and she would no longer be the King’s simple Ermengarda Schulemburg whom he had made Duchess of Kendal. Money had always sharpened Ermengarda’s wits.
Caroline continued:
‘I had the honour of knowing the late King, and you know that to know him was sufficient to make one love him also ...’
Oh, no! That was too much! But in Ermengarda’s present mood she would accept it. George I had been a god to her when he lived; now he would naturally have become a saint. And Ermengarda must come back to England; she must be safely settled in the shadows for ever more.
‘I know that you always tried to render good service to the present King. He knows it too and I hope you realize that I am your friend. It is my pleasure and duty to remind you of the fact and to tell you that I and the King will always be glad to do all we can to help you. Write to me, I beg you, and give me an opportunity to show how much I love you.
Caroline.’
Its falseness was apparent in every line. But Ermengarda might not see this. She was almost out of her wits with grief for the King whose constant companion and devoted mistress she had been for so many years.
Caroline despatched the letter that it might arrive at the same time as the Duke of Wolfenbüttel received the handsome sum George was sending in payment for the will.
There were many anxious days before the copy of his father’s will was in the King’s hands and, once there, immediately given the same treatment as the other copy.
Coronation
EVERYONE’S thoughts were now occupied with the coronation.
The Queen had dismissed the governess of her eldest girls and had decided that she would supervise their education. It was a little late now, Anne being nearly nineteen years old and even Caroline only four years younger. Oh, how angry she could become even now when she thought of the years that old monster George I had kept them from her. Still that was over now and she must make the best of it.
Here she had all her children under her care now. Even Frederick would have to come soon.
Not yet, she thought. The longer they kept him out of England the better.
She went to the nursery, for she had commanded the elder girls to be there with their little sisters and brother as she wished to talk to them all together.
When she entered the elder girls curtsied, but the young ones rushed at her and Anne looked on with haughty disapproval as young William claimed first attention.
She could never resist him. He was her favourite and she was touched by love and pride every time she saw him. Darling William, already Duke of Cumberland.
‘My darling!’ said Caroline fondly. ‘And you have been goot boy?’
‘He is never a good boy, Mamma,’ said Anne coldly. William swung round and ran at his sister preparing to pummel her.
‘I am a good boy. I am. I am. I am the best boy in the world, I tell you.’
‘Oh, William, William, that vill not do. Come here at vonce to Mamma.’
William stuck out his lower lip and grimaced at Anne before turning to his mother.
‘Now, you vill tell me how you are getting on with your lessons.’
‘I am very clever, Mamma.’
‘So he says,’ retorted Amelia.
‘No, no. It is Jenkin who says so.’
‘And you have been reading Mr Gay’s fables.’
William nodded, smiling at the memory of the fables. Anne interrupted by saying: ‘Mamma, what are we to wear for the coronation.’
‘Ah, the coronation! That is vy I have to you come. You vill all be taught your part and I know you vill do as you should. It vill be von great experience to see your father and me crowned. And I shall so proud of yen be.’
‘I shall be there!’ cried William.
‘And that,’ retorted Anne sourly, ‘will ensure the success of the occasion.’
William nodded gravely, believing this to be so, and his mother laughed.
Anne was so angry she could have slapped the spoilt child. The only thing that gave her satisfaction was that his arrogant little nose would soon be put out of joint. for surely Frederick would have to come home shortly. Then Master ‘William would learn that he was only a young brother. From the way he behaved now one would think he was the heir to the throne.
‘Mamma, shall we carry your train?’ asked Amelia. ‘Yes, my dear, you three eldest shall carry my train.’
‘I will carry it!‘ cried William.
The Queen laughed as though he had said something very clever.
‘You are too young,’ Anne told him. ‘And boys don’t carry trains.’
‘If I want to carry a train ...’ began William ominously. But Amelia interrupted: ‘Can three of us carry the train then, Mamma?’
‘Oh, yes. You three will carry it and you will be wearing your purple robes of states, with circlets on your heads.’
‘Not coronets?’ asked Anne, always anxious that no outward sign of royalty should be omitted.
‘No, dear. These vill be borne before you by three peers.’
Anne clasped her hands ecstatically. ‘Oh, how I wish that I were going to be crowned. Mamma, you must be the happiest woman in the world.’
‘I am happiest most to have my children vith me.’ ‘Shall I be crowned?’ asked William.
Anne laughed loudly. ‘You are not even Prince of Wales. It is the Prince of Wales who becomes the King. You were born a little too late, dear brother.’
‘Mamma, why was I born too late?’
Never was there such an arrogant six-year-old, thought Amelia. It was time brother Frederick came home if only to show Master William that although his mother spoilt him outrageously, he was not the most important member of the household.
‘My darling, these things vill be.’
The Queen was regretful. William himself could not have wished more heartily than she that he was the firstborn and therefore Prince of Wales.
‘But I don’t want them to be.’
‘And even William, Duke of Cumberland, can’t have everything he wants,’ replied Anne.
How sharp she is, how acid! thought the Queen. That must be corrected. And there was Amelia looking almost mannish although so good looking; and little Caroline stooping too much. Mary and Louisa were such babies, of course, but they seemed to be her very own because they had not been taken from her and she had always had charge of them. She feared that the quarrel with the late King had had a marked affect on her family.