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This threw Augusta into a panic, but her husband assured her that he had a plan. She would keep to her bed and the room would be so darkened that the Queen would not see her properly so it would not be difficult to feign illness. All she had to do was lie back and look wan.

When the Queen arrived and the Prince came with the Queen to her bedroom, the Princess of Wales was lying in her bed, her eyes closed.

The Queen took a seat beside the bed and asked how she felt.

‘Very weak, Your Majesty,’ said Augusta, but even to herself her voice sounded high pitched and false. She was not, she feared, a very good actress.

The Queen enquired about her symptoms in such detail that the Princess became very muddled, but the Queen was kind and said that she would not stay long as she could see that her presence was a little exhausting to one in the Princess’s state. On the other hand she had every confidence that very soon her daughter-in-law would be completely recovered.

With that she took her leave telling herself that one could not blame the Princess whatsoever; she would be a pleasant creature without that odious husband of hers.

She implied to her son as she took her leave that he had not deceived her one bit, and asked him why he had not attended the Council which had assembled to see her break the seals of the King’s commission which made her Regent.

‘My apologies, Madam,’ retorted the Prince insolently. But I mistook the hour.’

She curtly left him, thinking: We shall have trouble with him. His marriage has not helped us at all.

But at Richmond she summoned her family because she needed the comfort they always gave her—William, her particular favourite, and Caroline, her more constant companion. Caroline she took just a little for granted perhaps, but on William she doted.

Even the King liked his son. William was bright, quick-witted, which was a pleasure to his mother; and his preoccupation with military affairs gave him something in common with his father.

It was a pity, thought Caroline, that Frederick had ever been born.

The less rigorous routine immediately had its effect on the Queen’s health. Lady Sundon was pleased that there were no more of those cold foot-baths which she was sure were the worst possible thing for the Queen’s health. If Caroline’s legs and feet were too swollen for walking then she merely pleaded a pressure of business and rested in her bedchamber.

It was a great relief to escape from the King’s temper.

He was writing to her every day, long letters describing every detail of his days, and these were largely taken up with Madame de Walmoden.

It had been a wonderful reunion. She was an enchanting creature. He described her body in detail so that Caroline would be delighted to know how happy he was. They had a fine boy now—a very pretty fellow. He wished Caroline could see him.

She showed the letters to Walpole who nodded gravely but did stress the one good point that the King was still as frank as ever and it was an asset to know the exact state of his enslavement.

Then came the letter which set the Queen laughing and yet at the same time made her sad, for it was rather melancholy to have the follies of one’s husband so blatantly brought home to one.

The King was in a quandary and he wanted his dear wife’s opinion on this matter.

She knew of course that he had given his dear Madame de Walmoden apartments in the Leine Schloss and she would remember the gardens which ran down to the river. Well, one night a gardener had seen a ladder propped against the wall of the Schloss and this was immediately under Madame de Walmoden’s window. The gardener was a zealous man who was certain that a thief was trying to steal Madame de Walmoden’s jewels; so cautiously leaving the ladder where it was, he called together some of his fellow gardeners and posting one at the foot of the ladder he and the others made a search of the gardens and sure enough they found a man hiding in the bushes. Thinking they had discovered a low fellow bent on robbery, they called the guard and in spite of his protestations the man was arrested. Now comes the awkward part of the story because the man was no low fellow after all, but a diplomat who had come to Hanover on the Emperor’s business and was a very high official. His name was Schulemburg and he was of course a connection of the Duchess of Kendal. He was, on showing his credentials, immediately released, but not before the story was being talked of all over the Court.

His dear Madame de Walmoden was most distressed. As Caroline could imagine one so beautiful and enchanting and honoured, of course, through her liaison with the King, was bound to have enemies. She had assured him that the whole thing was a plot contrived by her great enemy, Madame d’Elitz. Caroline would remember Madame d’Elitz, as one of the ladies with whom he had had a little affair of gallantry before he had the great good fortune to discover his peerless Madame de Walmoden. Poor Madame d’Elitz could have been jealous. He would understand that. But there was a great deal of gossip and he could see that so many people did not really believe Madame de Walmoden’s story.

Now he trusted his dear wife’s judgment, as she knew well, and he would like to have  her opinion of this little affair.

‘Show this letter to le gros homme,’ he finished, ‘for my dear Caroline, he is more experienced in these affairs than you are, and less prejudiced than I myself am in this one.’

Caroline summoned Walpole and showed him this letter. He laughed over it.

‘I think, Madam,’ he said, ‘that this is a step in the right direction. This could well be the beginning of the end.’

But although the King continued to write pages about the affair it soon became clear that his infatuation had not diminished in one small degree; and the fact that he was eager to believe in the innocence of Madame de Walmoden over the ladder affair showed how deeply he was involved with her.

* * *

Trouble was in the air. Caroline knew that the Prince was fermenting this. The story of the ladder had leaked out and was seized joyfully by the lampoon writers. The King had never been so unpopular, and this reflected on the government. All over the country there was unrest. In the West of England there were riots among farmers over the importation of corn; and the Spitalfields weavers declared they would no longer tolerate the Irish workers in their midst who were ready to work for a lower wage than they were. There was fighting among the English and Irish and the Queen ordered that soldiers be called out to quell this. The act enraged the Spitalfields workers who declared that more consideration was given to foreigners than the English since they had foreigners on the throne. They even forgot their own grievances to ask what the Germans were doing here and demanding that they be sent back to Hanover.

‘Long live James III, the true King of England!’ was a cry which was heard frequently in the streets that summer.

But it was the Prince of Wales who caused the Queen the most anxiety. Trouble was brewing there. His hatred of her had increased since his marriage and she knew it was due to the fact that she had been Regent while he had been passed over. It was alarming to contemplate that he hated her even more fiercely that he hated his father.

She found that she was wishing he was dead. How much less trouble there would be if he were! William would make such a fine Prince of Wales and in time King—and how happily they could dispense with Frederick!

He was teaching his wife to cause trouble, too, although one could not blame her. Poor little thing, she hadn’t a mind of her own.

She was obviously instructed to do the things she did, such as arriving late at church and as the only way she could reach her seat when she entered by the main door was by passing along the pew in which the Queen sat, this was very uncomfortable for the Queen, in view of her portly figure—uncomfortable and undignified; yet on every occasion the Princess did this.