The Prince and the Quakeress: (Georgian Series) by Jean Plaidy

Author:Jean Plaidy [Plaidy, Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2012-08-30T05:00:00+00:00

‘The Butcher’s’ Disgrace

CUMBERLAND WAS COMING home to England… in disgrace. The King strode about his compartment, wig on one side, cheeks scarlet with rage.

‘Hanover!’ he moaned. ‘Hanover in the hands of the French! And he calls himself a son of mine. Was ever a father so cursed by his children? I thank God the Queen has not lived to see this day.’

Mr Pitt had called to see the King. Mr Pitt, the man who believed that England’s glory lay overseas. Here was a pretty state of affairs, a good beginning to Mr Pitt’s grand schemes. Hanover, the home of the Kings of England, the sacred spot, loved by this royal family as St James’s, Windsor, Hampton, Kensington had never been… and now it was in the hands of the French!

‘Mr Pitt, sir, you find me low… very low.’

‘Your Majesty is grieved by the loss of Hanover, I know.’

‘It is the home of my fathers, Mr Pitt. I was brought up in Hanover. As you know, I have never let long periods of time pass without visiting it.’

‘I know it well, Sire.’

‘I was happier at Hanover, Sir, than anywhere else in this world.’

‘Your Majesty’s subjects have been made aware of that fact.’

‘And now it is lost… lost by that fool of a son of mine. Why did I ever put him in charge of my armies… ?’

‘An old custom, Sire, to keep the plums of office in the family.’

‘Eh… eh, what’s that?’

‘Not always a wise one as Your Majesty is now perceiving, but is Your Majesty being entirely fair to His Royal Highness?’

The trouble with these geniuses, thought the King, was that they believed they had some prerogative to speak their minds. They gloried in it. They boasted of it. These honest men! The unpleasant truth was that a King could not do without them. Mr Pitt was such a one.

‘The puppy was caught asleep, I heard, at Hastenbecke… The French surrounded him and he would have been taken but for the prompt action of Colonel Amherst.’

‘One of the officers I recommended to Your Majesty, you will remember. Yes, he did good work. The Duke’s position was not a happy one at Hastenbecke, Sire, and I dareswear you knew that some compromise would have to be made. Bremen and Verden had to be saved and the troops brought out of danger. It was the loss of the duchies and all those men… or Hanover.’

‘Hanover,’ wailed the King. ‘It has a special place in my heart, Mr Pitt. I spent the first years of my marriage there, you will remember.’

Aye, thought Pitt, and courted Madame Walmoden there too, and sent the Queen accounts of your courtship in that delectable spot.

‘You will, then, understand my feelings.’

‘Indeed yes, Sire.’

‘So that is why I can’t wait to get my hands on that… puppy.’

‘Sire, Hanover is temporarily lost. It is a small electorate. I believe Your Majesty penned your signature to the orders which were sent to the Duke to sign the convention.’

‘I thought the Duke would make a stand.

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