‘The Princess of Wales!’ the cry went up and the people began to cheer. Here was a situation more interesting than the Opera could hope to be. The Princess and the Prince in the house together.
The Czar was looking interested.
‘What a handsome fellow,’ whispered Caroline excitedly.
‘Madam,’ said Lady Charlotte, ‘the people expect you to rise and acknowledge their cheers.’
‘Oh no,’ she said audibly, ‘Punch’s wife is nobody when Punch is there. I know my business better than to take the morsel out of my husband’s mouth.’
The applause continued.
And the Prince Regent with that elegance and savoir-faire which Caroline could never hope to understand, let alone emulate, rose turning to face her and gave the house and Caroline the benefit of that elegant bow which was the admiration of all who beheld it.
It was an evening of triumph for Caroline and of exasperating humility for the Prince. For when the Opera was over she went out to the carriage and found a crowd waiting for her.
They were also waiting for the Prince Regent. ‘Where’s your wife, George?’ they asked mockingly. This was particularly infuriating when he was in the company of visiting royalty.
As for Caroline it was: ‘Long live the Princess. God bless the innocent.’
They crowded round her carriage; they insisted on shaking hands with her.
Nothing loath she opened the door and took their hands in her affable friendly way. They cheered her lustily. She was the heroine of the evening.
One cried: ‘Shall we burn down Carlton House? You only have to say the word.’
‘No, no,’ she cried. ‘Just let me pass now and go home and sleep peacefully.
And God bless you.’
‘God bless you,’ they cried.
It was certainly a triumph.
But she soon realized the emptiness of such triumphs. The Czar had been impressed or amused by the evening at the Opera and he sent a note to Caroline asking permission to call on her.
How delightedly she gave it! ‘We must have a banquet. My word, this will put his little nose out of joint. We’ll have such a spectacle as to compete with anything he’s ever had at Carlton House.’
That was a wild exaggeration, of course, but it delighted her to think that in spite of her in-laws she was to receive the royal visitor.
She set her cooks to work; she sat with her women while long hours were spent on her toilette. She insisted that the rouge and white lead should not be spared.
‘That’s what he liked last time. Give him lots of it.’
But when she was ready she waited in vain; for the royal visitor did not appear.
Doubtless he had been made to realize by his advisers that he could not in a foreign country visit a Princess who was ignored by the Prince Regent.
Caroline took off her wig and threw it into the air. ‘Well, that’s that, my angels.’
She became very melancholy.
‘I don’t know why I stay in this country to be treated in this way. What’s to stop my leaving it? I can’t see anything to stand in the way.’
‘There’s war on the Continent,’ pointed out Lady Charlotte.
‘So there is. But if there was not, do you know I think I should go away. It would be the best for everyone, including myself. I’d take Willie with me and some of you dear friends.’
‘What of the Princess Charlotte?’
‘Ah, my Charlotte! But you know she is in constant conflict with her father and a great deal of that trouble is through her loyalty to me. So perhaps it would even be better for her.’
She sighed. She was certainly in one of her moods of, deepest depression.
She left the house she had taken in Connaught Place for Blackheath. There, she said, she could brood on her troubles, for she was becoming increasingly aware that she would have to take some action— though what she was unsure.
Montague House was always a comfort. There she had had her happiest times.
She decided she would send for the Sapios and they should soothe her with their music. It would comfort her considerably and perhaps provide her with the inspiration she needed.
Lady Charlotte came hurrying in with a look of consternation. ‘Your Highness, there is a carriage at the door. You are implored to leave without delay for Connaught House.’
‘This is too much. I refuse—’
‘Madam, the Princess Charlotte is there. She has run away— to you.’
‘Get my cape at once,’ cried Caroline; and in a few minutes she was on the way to Connaught House.
There she found Brougham, some of Charlotte’s ladies, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor Eldon, the Duke of York and the Duke of Sussex. And in the midst of this gathering a very defiant Charlotte who when she saw her mother ran to her and threw herself into her arms.
‘It’s no use,’ she said. ‘I shall not go back. I am going to live with my mother.
I have chosen.’
The men looked helpless and it was Brougham who spoke, ‘Your Highness must consider what this could mean.’
‘I have considered,’ cried Charlotte imperiously. ‘I have made up my mind. I am tired of being my father’s prisoner. I am going to be free. I am going to be with my own mother, It’s what I want. It’s what the people want.’
Caroline said: ‘Tell me what has happened.’
Charlotte laughed. ‘I refuse to marry Orange.’ She shivered. ‘I absolutely refuse and I have told him so. For one thing it would mean living in Holland which is something I will not do. And why should I? I shall one day be the Queen of England. England is where I propose to live.’
‘And your father knows this?’ asked Caroline.
Charlotte rolled her eyes to the ceiling. ‘The scene! You should have heard it.
I will say this for him— he has a fine command of the language. But do you know how he is going to punish me? He’s going to dismiss all my staff and provide me with— jailers. I won’t have it. We’ll be together, won’t we? We’ll be a pair of outcasts.’
Brougham said: ‘Your Highness will explain to the Princess Charlotte how impossible such a plan would be.’
Caroline nodded. ‘They wouldn’t let us be together, my angel. I’d have no power to keep you— happy as I should be to do so.’
‘Oh, Mamma, how cruel they all are!’
‘Yes, my darling, but we must needs put up with it.’
Lord Eldon was regarding Charlotte with disapproval. He would have liked to deal severely with that tempestuous and bouncing girl; if she were his, he had told the Regent, he would lock her up.
Brougham explained tactfully that the law had to be considered as well as her father. She was very young. She was in the care of the State. She would have to remember this.
‘I’d have you remember that I am the heiress to the throne. One day I shall be your Queen.’
‘We know it, Your Highness, and it is for this reason that you must submit to the law.’
Charlotte looked piteously at her mother, and Caroline could only nod.
‘He’s right, I fear, my darling. You’ll have to go back. Perhaps when your father knows how strongly you feel, he will be lenient with you.’
Brougham with a dramatic gesture went to the window and drew aside the curtains. It was dark, being past midnight.
He said dramatically: ‘It is quiet out there now, Your Highness; but with dawn the people will begin to gather. If they know that you have run away in defiance of your father it could start a riot— worse still. Who knows? And once these disturbances begin there is no knowing where they will end. You would not wish to start a civil war, I am sure, which could mean bloodshed for thousands of innocent people.’
Charlotte was staring wide-eyed.
‘It’s true,’ he said. ‘Everyone here will bear me out.’
She looked round at the assembled company.