Queen in Waiting - Plaidy Jean. Страница 46

George Lewis had come into the orangery. Caroline was

aware of the startled faces of his two mistresses, but all that was admirable in George Lewis was uppermost on an occasion such as this.

Without showing the least sign of agitation he knelt beside his mother and felt her pulse. Then he sent one of the guards to bring him some poudre d'or. "Quickly," he said. "There may be time."

Caroline brought a cushion and placed it under Sophia's head.

"When did it happen?" asked George Lewis.

"Quite suddenly. We were walking and talking ... and suddenly she fell."

George Lewis nodded and said no more and a few minutes later the guard returned with the poudre d'or which George Lewis forced into her mouth.

"It may revive her," said Caroline.

"If it is not too late," replied George Lewis, in a flat unemotional voice.

What was he thinking? wondered Caroline. How much did he feel for his mother? Did he recognize her virtues or had she been to him nothing but an interfering old woman? Whatever he felt George Lewis would not betray it.

The physician had arrived. Kneeling beside the Electress and looking from George Lewis to Caroline he said: "There is nothing we can do."

"So she's dead," said George Lewis, final, matter of fact.

"I fear so. Your Highness."

"It can't be so," began Caroline; but George Lewis ignored her.

"She should be carried into the palace," he said.

So the body of Sophia was carried into the palace which she had loved beyond all others. Queen Anne lived on, but Sophia, whose great ambition had been to succeed her, had been as she herself would have said 'snuffed out like a candle'.

No one mourned Sophia as sincerely as Caroline. Not since the death of Sophia Charlotte had she felt so desolate. It was

true that now she was married and had her own children; but the Electress had been like a mother to her and she had loved her dearly.

Now there was no one to share her liberal ideas, no one to whom she could turn for advice.

She was very melancholy but after a while she became philosophical. Nothing ever stood still. The Electress Sophia, like her daughter Sophia Charlotte, had taught Caroline invaluable lessons, and she would best preserve their memory by profiting from them.

Yet the gap left by Sophia's death was immeasurable. The children were too young to be of much help to her. George Augustus? She had long since learned that she could expect little from him. She must however be grateful to the Electress who had taught her how to govern without seeming to, how to win through secret diplomacy.

**I shall never forget," said Caroline. "Never."

July was an uneasy month. Rumours came thick and fast from England. Queen Anne could not live much longer.

George Lewis shrugged his shoulders. He was not deeply concerned. He had no wish to go to England; Hanover was good enough for him.

"If the English showed any sign of not wanting me," he said, "I would show them very clearly that I did not want them."

He had thought of being King of England at some future date; but Sophia's death had placed him in the direct line.

To go to England would be a great upheaval, and at fifty, if one were not an ambitious man, such disturbances were to be avoided.

"The English!" he said. "Bah! It is not long since they lopped the head off one King, and that King's son was sent into exile. What sort of people are they?"

If it had been her burning desire to be Queen of England, George Lewis's might be said to be to stay in Hanover.

During the first days of August James Craggs came riding breathlessly to Hanover; before even seeing his mistress, the

Countess von Platen, he presented himself to her protector, George Lewis.

"This really is the end, Your Highness," he assured him. "The Queen is dying. Indeed I am ready to stake my life she is already dead."

George Lewis looked at the young man—one whom he regarded as his own kind—bucolic and shrewd without any fancy manners; the fact that he was the lover of George Lewis's mistress was a further bond between them.

George Lewis thanked James Craggs and told him that he appreciated his loyalty and James went to his mistress and told her that soon they would all be in England.

George Lewis retired early and alone. It had come; he was sure of it. It would be an entirely new life. He would have to go to England—but he could postpone that; he would become ruler of a country of some standing in the world. Different, as his mother had often pointed out, from a little German state.

But, George Lewis promised himself, even though I may have to reside in England, I shall frequently visit Hanover. Hanover is my own country. I shall never forget that—nor shall the English.

He settled himself to sleep.

George Lewis was aroused out of his sleep.

"What hour is it?" he demanded.

"Two o'clock. Your Highness."

"Then what is the meaning of this."

Before his servant could reply he w^as aware of a man at his bedside whom he recognized as Lord Clarendon Envoy Extraordinary from England.

He did not like Clarendon whom the Queen had sent to Hanover, because as first cousin to Anne he had worked entirely for the Queen, and George Lewis had always regarded him as a kind of spy. Moreover he knew that Clarendon had not been in favour of the Hanoverian succession and was at heart a Jacobite; so, having been awakened at two o'clock in the morning by a man whom he disliked, who had come to tell

him something which he knew already, this disturbance did not give him great pleasure.

"Clarendon," he said, raising himself on his elbow. **What's this. Clarendon?"

"The Queen is dead. Sire. Long live George the First of England Scotland and Ireland."

George Lewis grunted.

"Your Majesty, I await your commands," said Clarendon.

"You'd better stay in Hanover till I leave," said George.

"Yes, Your Majesty. And for the moment?"

"Leave me," said George Lewis and settling down into his bed, promptly fell asleep.

Thus George Lewis, Elector of Hanover, had become George the First of England.

Royal Arrival

If the new King was not excited by the prospect of leaving Hanover for England, everyone else at the Court was. Who should accompany him? Who should stay behind? These were the important questions of the hour.

In their apartments Caroline discussed the change of fortune with George Augustus. They both now had a new and glorious title: Prince and Princess of Wales. George Augustus was carried away by excitement. One day he would be the King of England.

"George the Second," he murmured to himself.

All he had to do was wait for his father to die and the old man was already past fifty.

He could scarcely wait to get to England. He discussed the matter continually with Caroline, to whom he had grown closer since the death of his grandmother and that, to him, much more significant event, the death of Anne.

Caroline was a good wife and he had no regrets at having married her. She had proved herself to be reliable in the past and was doing the same now. Always she talked of his interests.

as a wife should; and since these were in direct opposition to those of his father, this made an intriguing subject.

"We should get to England as quickly as possible," she reminded him. *'Your father's delay is nothing short of foolish. What will the English think of a King who holds their country in so little regard that he delays going immediately to accept the crown they are offering him? But I'm glad he is so stupid. It gives us an opportunity to show we are different."