But now he was extremely dissatisfied and she was afraid of what he would do. He had these men ready to follow him. Besides the English there were 125,000 men in Ireland. It was to have such an army at his command that he had joined the Lodge and become its Grand Master. There was no end to his ambition.
‘This country needs a strong man,’ he said. ‘Any means to bring him to the throne should be employed.’
‘Any means, Ernest?’
‘Any means,’ he repeated firmly.
‘She is quite a pleasant creature – Victoria.’
‘She is a child, governed by that impossible nuisance of a woman. Anything is permissible which would prevent Madam Kent having a hand in government.’
The Duchess said: ‘Remember …’
And he knew what she meant. Some years ago he had had a plan to get rid of Victoria; he had wanted her at Windsor where he was living at that time in the household of George IV; and he had set rumours in motion that the child was a weakling, not expected to live. But her mother had foiled that by parading the child in the park – ‘plump as a partridge’, as it had been said, glowing with health. His schemes had reacted on himself and sinister rumours had again surrounded him.
It would be unpleasant if the rumours that he was planning to murder Victoria were started up again.
He avoided his Duchess’s eye. He said: ‘I am commanded to dine with the King at Windsor. He is not well.’ He laughed rather unpleasantly. ‘Every time I see William I wonder how much longer he can live …’
‘Out of a strait-jacket?’
‘I was thinking of the grave.’
‘Poor William. I’d rather the grave than the strait-jacket.’
‘I think that was what our father always thought – but he had both. And if William doesn’t die soon it’ll be the same for him. He would have been put away by now but for Adelaide.’
‘I don’t think we consider Adelaide enough. She’s much less insignificant than is generally believed.’
‘It’s true, but once William has gone she will have no significance whatsoever. I don’t concern myself with Adelaide. It’s Victoria I have to think about. That chit should be set aside. A girl … what good is a girl to a country that needs a strong man?’
‘People might recall Queens Elizabeth and Anne.’
‘Bah!’ said the Duke. ‘They weren’t brought up by the Duchess of Kent.’
‘It is time you left for Windsor,’ said the Duchess. ‘And, Ernest … have a care.’
The old fellow was certainly looking ill, thought Cumberland. And the Queen was a poor thing, too.
‘She works too hard,’ said the King. ‘And her cough’s troublesome.’
‘She must take greater care of herself,’ replied Cumberland.
Adelaide wanted to know how young George was.
‘He is unchanged,’ said his father; and the Queen’s eyes filled with tears.
‘Is there nothing that can be done?’
‘If Graefe can do nothing, nobody can.’
‘Poor, poor George! I know how the Duchess suffers.’
Cumberland thought: This is not like a royal court. William has no idea of kingliness and Adelaide is too domesticated. She means well but what a travesty of royalty.
He began to think of how different it would be when he was King. It was so easy to enrage the people. They hated Adelaide already. If he could make them believe that there was a danger of that poor old dotard William’s turning Catholic, his coup would succeed in a few days – weeks at the most. As for Victoria … she might be agreeable to stand aside. What did a chit of a girl want with a throne?
The King said it was time to go in to dinner and in his usual informal way he went among his guests exchanging greetings with them as though he were some country squire rather than the Sovereign of a great country.
Surely, thought Cumberland, these people must be laughing at him behind his back. Surely they would be pleased to see a real monarch on the throne.
After the meal, Ernest as the King’s brother proposed the royal toast. He noticed that those assembled drank it without a great deal of enthusiasm. This made Ernest daring. He would make an experiment; he would see what the reaction would be.
He rose and raising his glass cried in a loud voice: ‘The King’s heir, God bless him.’
William stared at him, his face growing red with sudden anger. He had heard the rumours; he knew what an ambitious man his brother Cumberland was. Did he think he was going to do away with tradition? Did he think that he was going to sweep away the true heir to the throne? William could not abide the Duchess of Kent; in fact he hated the woman more than he hated anyone; but that did not mean that her daughter was not the rightful heir.
He stood up and lifting his glass and glaring at his brother he cried: ‘The King’s heir, God bless her.’
For a few dramatic seconds the two brothers stared at each other. Cumberland was very well aware that the company was with the King, and that he had committed a major error in betraying his ambitions so blatantly.
This affair of Cumberland’s toast was widely discussed in political and Court circles.
The Duchess realised that her husband had once more through his impetuous conduct spoiled his own game. So it had been when he had set rumours in motion about Victoria’s health. It had been so easy to refute these by parading the child. If he had wished to woo the public he should not have accumulated such a fearful reputation, so that the world was ready to believe the worst of him.
What did Cumberland mean by such a toast? The King’s heir, God bless him. It could only mean one thing – that he believed that the Princess Victoria was either going to die or be deposed. This was a man who had been suspected of murder. What did it mean?
A certain Joseph Hume, a careful Scotsman who had risen from somewhat humble origins – his mother had kept a crockery stall in Montrose – and who was a man of great energy and determination, decided that this was a good opportunity to attack the Orange Society. Hume, whose mother’s hard work had enabled him to become a surgeon, had later gone into Parliament and had called attention to himself by exposing abuses.
He had long been aware that the Orange Lodges were a menace, and considering the association of the Duke of Cumberland with them he believed that they were to be used in an endeavour to change the succession. He decided to raise a question in the House of Commons regarding the purpose of the Orange Lodges and the Duke of Cumberland’s connection with them.
So once again the Duke’s hasty action had foiled his own plans.
He immediately capitulated. He declared that the rumours concerning him and his motives were entirely false. He had never thought of changing the succession. Such a thing, he declared, was impossible. He could not understand how such rumours had started.
Shoulders were shrugged. They knew their Duke. Was he not the Grand Master of the Orange Lodges?
‘No longer,’ he declared, ‘for I have resigned that post.’
The Government decided that as a safety measure the Orange Lodges should be disbanded; and to show his innocence no one was more indefatigable in bringing about their dissolution than His Grace of Cumberland.
Frederica sighed. How much wiser, she thought, to resign oneself. He would in due course be King of Hanover. She would be rather pleased to go back to Germany; and their dear blind boy would follow his father on that throne. Life would be more peaceful; Ernest would enjoy it more when he had ceased to scheme for something which could not be his.