During the controversy over the Ladies of the Bedchamber the Tsarevitch Alexander, Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia, had arrived in England and the very night following the day when Victoria had routed Peel there was to be a ball at Buckingham Palace in honour of the Grand Duke.
Victoria, who loved balls more than any other form of entertainment, had lamented the fact that that wretched Peel was going to spoil this one entirely for her. But now that she was in such a mood of elation she prepared herself to enjoy it as she had never before enjoyed a ball. It will be a victory ball, she told Lehzen.
The Grand Duke was tall and very handsome, his manners charming, and he managed to convey very obviously that he thought the diminutive Queen delightful.
What a joy to dance with him and while she basked in the admiring glances of this royal personage to reflect that all was well, nothing was changed.
Lord Melbourne was present, looking a little tired she noticed with anxiety; but when she was dancing she was able to forget everything else but the pleasure that exercise gave her. How very fortunate that everything had been settled today so that she could throw herself wholeheartedly into this pleasure!
It was a quarter to three when the ball ended, and she recorded this with pleasure, for she loved to stay up late. It was because when she had been that poor little prisoner of Kensington Palace Mamma had always had such a stern eye on her and she was rarely allowed to do anything she wanted to.
She went off into a happy sleep as soon as her head was on her pillow but the first thing next morning she wrote to Lord Melbourne:‘The Queen is very anxious to hear that Lord Melbourne has not suffered from the ball last night, as it was very hot at first … The Queen danced the first and last dance with the Grand Duke, made him sit near her and tried to be very civil to him, and I think we are great friends already and get on very well. I like him exceedingly.’
There! She was doing her duty as Queen and she would continue to do so – as long as they did not try to wrest dear Lord M from her and attempt to replace him with that odious Sir Robert Peel.
Chapter X
‘MRS MELBOURNE’
But the Bedchamber controversy was by no means forgotten and it was unfortunate for the Queen that it had followed so closely on the Flora Hastings scandal. Although the names of Lady Tavistock and Lady Portman had been used freely in the press, it was generally accepted that these ladies would not have acted without the approval of the Queen and Victoria was regarded as the chief culprit. And now following on this was her behaviour in the matter of the Ladies of her Household.
Charles Greville, the Clerk of the Council, wrote in his diary that he was shocked because ‘a mere baby of a Queen’ had flouted the advice of that great man the Duke of Wellington. The truth was, he believed, that the Queen could not endure parting with Melbourne and this was a plot which had been hatched to prevent this happening.
This summed up the general opinion. Even Sir Robert Peel, that most discreet of men, could not avoid showing his indignation about the manner in which he had been treated. The Queen would have to learn that although she might be their Sovereign these men whom she had treated with such haughty disdain were some of the greatest statesmen of the age.
The press naturally took up the affair with many a sly allusion; Lord Brougham thundered away in the Lords attacking Melbourne and his Cabinet and not hesitating – though with expressions of loyalty to the Crown – to castigate the Queen herself.
Victoria refused to be concerned. She had won and was going to enjoy life. She had another birthday. Now she was twenty. It was not such a happy birthday as the last one, but she could congratulate herself that she still had her dear Lord Melbourne.
She threw herself wholeheartedly into entertaining her royal guest, the Grand Duke. What a charming man and such an expert dancer! He taught her to dance the mazurka – ‘Very Russian and exciting. One is whisked round as in the waltz,’ she told Lehzen afterwards. ‘Alexander does it magnificently.’
It was all very gay and if entertaining foreign visitors was always like this she could not do enough of it.
‘It is so good for me,’ she told Melbourne.
‘It might have the opposite effect,’ replied Lord Melbourne.
But for once she did not agree with him.
She thought a great deal of the Grand Duke and wrote in her Journaclass="underline" ‘I am really quite in love with the Grand Duke. He is such a dear, delightful man.’
The Duke of Wellington and Lord Melbourne remained anxious about the Flora Hastings affair for Flora still languished in the Duchess’s apartments at the Palace, growing more and more like a wraith every day, a general reproach to everyone, and in particular to Lady Tavistock and Lady Portman. The latter had recently miscarried and everyone said it was due to her remorse about Flora Hastings, for it was very unpleasant to think that one’s conduct could be hastening someone to the grave.
The Queen was uneasy too and to comfort her Lord Melbourne insisted that Flora was pregnant after all.
‘We shall see,’ he said, with a look of wisdom, and Victoria tried to believe he might be right.
Wellington decided that at all costs they must rid themselves of Conroy for without doubt he had been the instigator of the Hastings drama. But for him it would have been just a matter of suspicion, a little gossip followed by the doctors’ exonerating verdict. The Hastings family, of course, had done the harm, but it should never have been allowed to reach a stage when it was possible for them to act as they had. So, they must most certainly rid themselves of Conroy. The Duke would work on him. He should have the pension he demanded; the peerage he asked could be promised him.
‘Whether he ever gets it would be another matter,’ pointed out the Duke, ‘for it may well be that you, Melbourne, will not be Prime Minister when the Irish peerage promised him is available. And as it will be you who promised it, another Prime Minister might not feel himself obliged to give it. It seems likely that at the next election, which surely cannot be long delayed, the Whigs will stand down for the Tories and then it will be Peel’s affair.’
Melbourne agreed with an ironic smile that one of the matters he would be most willing to place into Peel’s competent hands was that of Sir John Conroy.
‘So, rid ourselves of that mischief-maker we must,’ said the Duke and, as he went into the fight as though it had been Waterloo, he succeeded.
It was with great joy that Lord Melbourne was able to call at the Palace and tell the Queen what had been arranged, and that Conroy would shortly be leaving.
What a pleasure it was to sit and chat with Lord Melbourne again in the blue closet!
The only flaw was Flora Hastings, who was growing steadily worse.
‘I visited her and she was so ill,’ said the Queen. ‘She made me feel quite wretched. I never saw anyone so thin; she was like a skeleton but her body is so swollen that she looks as though she were pregnant. I hear she is very sick.’
‘Sick!’ said Lord Melbourne with an ironic smile.
‘She must be very ill to look as she does, but she took my hand when I offered it and said she was grateful for all I had done.’
‘She always had a mordant sort of wit.’
‘I think she meant it. She looked at me as though to say: “I know I shall not see you again.”’
‘Your Majesty is too tender-hearted. That woman has caused you a great deal of trouble. Shall we talk of something else? I do know more pleasant subjects.’