‘Oh, Madam, Madam.’

‘He swore he wasn’t, that he never would be. But he is, of course, Sundon. He is. Why am I telling you this? Why ... why ... when I have kept silent all these years. You have known. The secret has been there, Sundon, all these years.’

‘But safe, Madam, I have never breathed a word ... never betrayed by a look.’

‘I know it.’

‘Nor will I ever without your permission.’

‘My dear, good friend.’

‘But I am afraid. The time has come when you should tell the doctors.’

‘Tell the doctors! Never. It has been our secret ... and so shall it remain. I should never have told you if you had not guessed. And thank you ... for keeping silent.’

‘Your Majesty, I would serve you with my life but I know there should be no more of this secret.’

‘There will always be this secret. Remember that, Lady Sundon.’

‘As Your Majesty wishes.’

‘Oh, what has come over me tonight. I am behaving like a fool. I talk too much of other things because I am wounded ... deeply wounded. The King will not be home for his birthday.’

‘Oh, no, Madam!’

‘Yes, it is so. He cannot tear himself away from Madame de Walmoden.’

‘Oh, Madam.’

‘So, Sir Robert Walpole thinks we should ask her here. The King will not live without her and it seems the House of Hanover cannot live as rulers of England without the King. It is all very simple, Lady Sundon.’

‘But Your Majesty will never receive that woman here.’

‘So I tell Sir Robert.’

‘I should think so! What next! How dare that man! He is so coarse and crude himself that he expects everyone else to be the same.’

‘He tells me that I shall change my mind.’

‘Your Majesty will not.’

The Queen looked sadly at Lady Sundon.

‘Help me to bed,’ she said. ‘I am utterly weary.’

When the King received the Queen’s letter inviting Madame de Walmoden to England, he was delighted.

‘You know well my passions, my dear Caroline [he wrote]. You know my weaknesses and that I hide nothing in my heart from you. How I wish that I could be more like you for I so admire you. How I wish that I could be good and virtuous like you but you know my passions and my weakness....’

My God, thought the Queen, so I do.

He went on to tell her how enchanted she would be with Madame de Walmoden’s beauty. She would quickly understand why he took such pleasure in this lady and she herself would be happy contemplating his happiness. He wanted her to have the lodging Lady Suffolk used to have. ‘That would be most convenient for me to visit her, my dear Caroline.’

Caroline showed Walpole the draft of the letter she had written to Madame de Walmoden.

He was delighted with it.

‘A masterpiece,’ he said.

‘A humiliating masterpiece,’ retorted Caroline.

It was impossible to keep secret the knowledge that Madame de Walmoden was coming to England. The Prince’s friends soon discovered it and decided to make the most of it.

It was discussed through the Court and the city. When is the King coming back?

Soon now. He has permission to bring the Walmoden with him. He was staying away until that permission was given. Now the Queen and Walpole are letting the little boy have his own way.

The people in the streets were less polite.

One morning the Princess Caroline, her cheeks flushed with rage, brought a paper into the room where her mother was having breakfast.

‘It was attached to the palace gates,’ she said.

The Queen read:

‘Lost or strayed out of this house a man who has left a wife and six children on the parish; who ever will give any tidings of him to the churchwardens of St James’s parish, so that he may be got again, shall receive four shillings and sixpence reward. N.B. This reward will not be increased, nobody judging him to deserve a crown.’

The Queen flushed slightly and went on drinking her chocolate.

The Prince of Wales riding in his carriage through the city with the Princess saw the crowd gathered round an old horse with a dilapidated saddle on its back.

He stopped his coach and asked if there had been an accident.

When he was recognized he was cheered, for the people wanted to show him that anyone who was an enemy of the King was their friend.

Then he saw the notice attached to the horse.

‘Let nobody stop me, I am the King’s Hanoverian Equipage going to fetch His Majesty and his whore to England.’

The Prince read this in a loud voice and laughed heartily at which the people cheered him more than ever; and they followed him back to St James’s shouting, ‘God Bless the Prince of Wales and let his father stay in Hanover’.

Caroline was disturbed by these public demonstrations of disapproval.

‘What will happen when the King sets foot in England with that woman?’ she demanded. ‘There’ll be a revolution.’

‘Have no fear,’ smiled Walpole. ‘She’ll never come.’ ‘But ... you suggested I should ask her.’

‘Ask her by all means, but I have a strong feeling that she will not come. My brother has always been of the opinion that she would not come.’

Walpole was smiling. It had been a wise move to send his brother, Horace, to Hanover with the King. He was sure then of hearing all he should know.

‘She’s no fool, this Walmoden. She realizes that her position as the Lady of Hanover to be visited as a special treat puts her in a far happier position than she would be in if she lived in this country. My brother tells her of the life poor Lady Suffolk led. She wants none of that. No, she will find excuses when the time comes. Your Majesty will never have to receive Madame de Walmoden in England.’

‘I hope you are right,’ said the Queen. ‘I admit to profound relief. And if she will not come, what of the King. Will he decide to stay with her?’

‘That is something he cannot do. He will have to return very soon.’

The King continued to postpone his departure; but Madame de Walmoden as Walpole had said, found excuses for not coming to England. She assured him of her fidelity; he must promise to return to her soon; but she could not come to England. She felt that it would jeopardize the King’s position if she did. That, she declared, was her sole reason.

In vain did the King plead. She was determined. She would not imperil his crown; rather would she grieve for him in Hanover and hope and pray that he would soon return to her.

The King gave a farewell ball and then another and another.

December had come and he was still in Hanover.

The Queen wrote to him that she had alarming news of Anne, the Princess of Orange, who was preparing for her confinement which threatened to be a difficult one. Perhaps he would call at the Hague on the way back. He would still have time before the weather became too bad.

But the King could not bear to leave Hanover and he gave another farewell supper and by that time it was the 7th of December and he dared not delay longer than that. for in a few weeks the weather could grow so bad that he might not be able to leave until the spring.

The Queen waited for his coming, for she had now heard that he had definitely left Hanover and once he had she knew he would travel with all speed.

The weather turned stormy and the wind howled through the Palace. News came from the coast towns of storm damage; but there was no news of the King.