"So different," she sighed, 'from the old days, when we were all together, the three of us. I can't think what has happened to George lately. Being king has gone to his head and he's surrounded by the wrong people and we shall have trouble." She touched her throat and the thought came to her then that she might not be here to see it.
George came in and greeted her as affectionately as ever. However much he tried to escape from her influence she was still his mother and he was too sentimental to forget that.
"My dearest son. How good it is to see you!”
"You are looking a little tired, Mother.”
"Nonsense. It's the light. I am very much looking forward to Christian's visit.”
"That is what I came to talk to you about. How strange that he should not be bringing Caroline Matilda with him. After all, it is Caroline Matilda we are really eager to see.”
The Princess smiled. George was such a family man. She was pleased about that at least.
"I have heard strange rumours from Frederiksberg.”
George nodded. "You think Caroline Matilda is unhappy?”
"Perhaps we shall be able to talk to Christian.”
"Do you think he will listen?”
"He should listen to his mother-in-law if he has any courtesy.”
"I wonder whether he has.”
The Princess Dowager sighed. Neither of her daughters had done very well. Poor Augusta merely Duchess of Brunswick and living in that hateful town in a poor sort of wooden house while her husband's mistress flaunted her position under her nose. A fine comedown for proud Augusta!
What had become of her sharp tongue? Was it any use to her in coping with this most indelicate situation which her boot of a husband insisted she accept? Well she had her daughter now, little Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, and the child must be a comfort to her, although naturally she would have preferred to have a son. But what that child would grow up like in such a court was beyond the Princess Dowager's divination. As for Caroline Matilda, her position was as bad, for quite clearly Christian did not have much affection for her otherwise would he be travelling without her?
"He seems to be a weak-willed young man from what I hear," said the Princess Dowager. "I do wish he was bringing your sister so that I could hear from her own lips what is happening over there.”
"I fear you would not be comforted. What?”
"Oh, you mean Christian's step-brother. There's no doubt that his mother will be wishing to see him inherit.”
George nodded grimly. He felt so responsible for his sister's welfare and he had often wished that they had not hurried Caroline Matilda into marriage. Fifteen was so young; and he liked to have as many members of his family around him as possible. Continually shocked as he was at the wild life his brothers indulged in, he would particularly have enjoyed having a young sister, whom he could advise and on whom he could dote.
But poor little Caroline Matilda had been sent far from home to a young bridegroom a weak, dissolute young man, more interested in some of his male attendants than in his young bride, and in the strange land she was confronted by this unfortunate scene. And there was a stepmother-in- law with a son whom naturally she would wish to inherit.
"Poor little Caroline Matilda," mused George. "I wonder if I shall be able to talk to Christian.”
George was obtuse, thought his mother. Did he really believe that this little pervert would listen to him just because he was King of England!
"I have heard that Christian has taken Count von Hoick as his favourite now.”
George flushed and looked shocked.
"It's all so unpleasant. What? But Caroline Matilda has her son, little Frederick, so ...”
"So," said the Princess Dowager grimly, 'our dissolute Christian is at least capable of begetting a child.”
"I really find this so distasteful, I find it most distasteful," said George. "I shall do my best to make this known to Christian.”
But when Christian arrived George saw how impossible it was to make any impression on the young man. He sent for Lord Weymouth and asked him to consult the Danish ambassador as to what would best please the young King and to ask for ideas on how to entertain him. When Weymouth returned to George he said he had had a very direct answer.
"The way to entertain the King of Denmark is to amuse him," was the answer. "And the wilder and more perverted the entertainment the more he will be amused.”
"This is most unpleasant, eh? What?" said the King; and Weymouth agreed that it was.
It was impossible for George to feel any affection for his brother-in-law. The very sight of the young man disgusted him. If he had seen him before the marriage he would never have agreed to it, but Caroline Matilda had been married by proxy. There was no doubt of his character. He was not only perverted, he was depraved; and it seemed to be having its effect on his wits.
He was surrounded by courtiers whose main duty it was to praise and glorify him; and the visit depressed George, particularly when he learned that Christian spent his time in the brothels of London in which all kinds of unnatural spectacles had been arranged for his entertainment.
George decided that he would no longer attempt to entertain his brother-in-law, so he went down to Kew to be with Charlotte and the children for a while.
"I cannot help reminding myself how fortunate we are, eh? When I think of what a life my poor sister is leading in Denmark ... and Augusta is not much better off in Brunswick. We have been lucky, eh? What?”
Charlotte agreed that they had. She was pregnant again, and that year gave birth to her second daughter; she called her Augusta Sophia. She now had six children after seven years of marriage.
It was pleasant to see the nurseries so full; but she was beginning to feel that she would like a little respite, if only for a few years.
Meanwhile that inveterate troublemaker, John Wilkes, was getting a little bored with exile and was thinking nostalgically of home. When he had arrived he had found it most diverting to be welcomed as he was by the literary world of Paris. In the Hotel de Saxe he had held his little court and later, when he took up residence in Rue St. Nicaise, he had that exciting and much-sought- after courtesan Corradini to live with him and share his exile. This he had found very much to his taste, and after a short residence in Paris they had travelled together to Rome and Naples, and it was in the latter city that he met his fellow countryman James Boswell and they, finding they possessed similar tastes, mostly for women and literature, greatly enjoyed each other's companionship.
Wilkes had then intended to write a History of England but when Corradini left him for another lover he lost interest in the project and returned to Paris to look at a lodging in the Rue des Saints Peres. Homesickness became more acute; if he had been able to make money with his literary efforts it would have been different; and so would it have been if Corradini had not deserted him.
These two factors together made him decide that he did not wish to live among the French. He was pining for the streets of London, for the coffee and chocolate houses, for the taverns and his literary friends; he wanted to be in the thick of the fight, to live dangerously, to send out his scandal sheets and await the consequences. And he wanted money. There was his beloved daughter Mary to educate. She was the only person in the world he cared about and he wanted to give her all that he believed her worthy of, which was a good deal.
Grimly he walked the streets of Paris and dreamed of London. His ugly face had ceased to be comical; it was only melancholy, and that made his squint look more alarming and not mischievous at all, only sinister.
"I must get back," he told himself. "I'll die of melancholy here.”
He waited avidly for news from London. Pitt was back ... Chatham now. Oh, fool of a man to think the title of Earl could give him a greater name than Pitt. And Grafton was with him. Now there was a man who might give him a helping hand. He didn't trust Chatham who had washed his hands of him when he was in trouble; Wilkes was not going to ask favours of that man. But Grafton was a different matter. Grafton might do something.