laid her obstinacy at her mother's door. Others detected the influence of the clever, handsome, intriguing Duchess of Oldenburg, sister of the Czar, whose proceedings in England were the subject of much comment among professed politicians; and these had certainly some reason to congratulate themselves on their clear-sightedness when the rejected Prince was ultimately picked up by another sister. Others looked to personal causes. Miss Knight thought the Prince' particularly plain and sickly in his look,' and boyish in manner.

Some said he had offended

taste by a very glaring pair of scarlet breeches, donned in an inauspicious hour. Some, that by help of that

mad, droll German' Prince Paul of Wirtemburg, he got sadly intoxicated on one occasion when he had to dance with his intended-a disagreeable circumstance, but less unpardonable, perhaps, in the eyes of one who had been used (if Miss Knight can be believed) to see her father and the keeper of her father's conscience in a similar plight. The reason commonly assigned consisted in disputes about the Princess's residence in Holland; on which much ingenious constitutional lore was spent, furnished to the Princess either, by Mr. Hallam or some equally competent authority. This, however, was no doubt an 'official' reason only. Whatever the real cause may have been,

it lay deeper. As for the mother herself, those who are acquainted with the debasing revelations of the Diary of the Times of George the Fourth' know how she received, and used, the disagreement. Without one thought for her daughter's real happiness, she was wholly absorbed in exultation at the defeat of her husband's hopes by that daughter's 'spirited' resistance. She applauded it to the echo, and professed to believe that a plot had been thereby defeated for banishing the young Princess to the Continent, and then declaring her illegitimate! It is edifying to observe that each parent brought this charge against the other. This opposition ultimately led to those measures of increased severity on the part of the Regent which produced the Princess Charlotte's famous flight from Warwick House, in a hackney-coach, on July 12, 1814.

The immediate cause of those measures has, however, not been hitherto known. Miss Knight offers a solution of the question, if we can believe her. She brings Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg now on the scene as pressing his attentions on her mistress, who was by no means partial to him, and only received him with civility. However, Miss Mercer evidently wished to recommend him.' Had this been true, Miss Mercer could hardly repent of having promoted the event which secured a few short months of happiness to her ill-fated friend. But we believe

there

there is no more foundation for this than for the many similar insinuations with which these pages are filled. Thus much only seems probable, that reports about Prince Leopold united with other causes in determining the Regent to get rid of all the Warwick House establishment, and carry the Princess Charlotte to his own home. And then followed the escapade in question, over which we wish to pause for a few moments, merely to show the apparent hopelessness of arriving at historical truth in details when an event so notorious, and in which so many took part, is represented with such strange discrepancies of narrative by independent eye-witnesses. The following is Miss Knight's account, omitting only some details about herself, and some sly, ill-natured hits at her bête noire Miss Mercer :—

About six (in the evening of the 12th July) the Regent came (to Warwick House), attended by the Bishop only (as I supposed); but he came up alone, and desired I would leave him with Princess Charlotte. He was shut up with her three-quarters of an hour, and afterwards a quarter more with the Bishop and Her Royal Highness. The door then opened, and she came out in the greatest agony, saying she had but one instant to speak to me, for that the Prince asked for me. I followed her into her dressing-room, when she told me the new ladies were in possession of the house; that I and all the servants were to be dismissed; that she was to be confined at Carlton House for five days, after which she was to be taken to Cranbourne Lodge, in the midst of Windsor Forest, where she was to see no one but the Queen once a week; and that if she did not go immediately, the Prince would sleep at Warwick House that night as well as all the ladies. I begged her to be calm, and advised her to go over as soon as possible, assuring her that her friends would not forget her. She fell on her knees in the greatest agitation, exclaiming, "God Almighty grant me patience!" I wished to stay and comfort her, but she urged me to go to the Prince, for fear of greater displeasure. I went to him, and he shut the door; the Bishop was with him. He told me he was sorry to put a lady to inconvenience, but that he wanted my room that evening for the ladies, repeating what Princess Charlotte had already told me. I asked in what I had offended, but he said he made no complaint, and would make none; that he had a right to make any changes he pleased, and that he was blamed for having let things go on as they had done. . . . I then made a low curtsy to him and left the room. What was my astonishment when I could not find Princess Charlotte anywhere, and when at length Miss Mercer and her maid, who had come (as was often the case) to dress her before dinner, appeared from my bedroom, the latter crying, and Miss Mercer saying she supposed Princess Charlotte was gone to her mother! The Prince came forward when I returned to the dressing-room, and I brought Miss Mercer, who desired I would do so, that she might not be suspected of anything clandestine. She told him that as she was

dressing

dressing herself in Princess Charlotte's bedroom, she heard her say she would go to her mother's (Lewis, the dresser, thought when she took her bonnet she was going to Carlton House), and before they could prevent it she had disappeared. The Prince was very cool, and seemed rather pleased, saying he was glad that everybody would now see what she was, and that it would be known on the Continent, and no one would marry her. . . . . The Bishop and Miss Mercer offered to go and look for her, and proposed my accompanying them, which I refused, saying I should wait, for that I did not wish to be in that house-meaning the Princess of Wales's-but that if I went, and Princess Charlotte asked me to stay with her, I could not refuse remaining with her there or in a prison. About nine the

Bishop returned. He did not come to me, but I heard he was gone over to Carlton House, that he had found Princess Charlotte, but had not brought her with him. I therefore went immediately to Connaught Place, and asked to see Princess Charlotte alone. Lady Charlotte Lindsay, in waiting on the Princess of Wales, came out to me and told me that Her Royal Highness was with her mother, Miss Mercer Elphinstone, and Mr. Brougham, in the next room, and the Princess of Wales desired I should walk in. She added how much the Princess had been surprised when she heard, by a messenger despatched from the house to Blackheath (whither she had gone on business), that Princess Charlotte was there, and not finding Mr. Whitbread and another member-I forget whom-to advise with, had sent for Mr. Brougham, and that before she got home Princess Charlotte had sent for the Duke of Sussex. I still begged to see Princess Charlotte alone, to which Lady Charlotte Lindsay seemed willing to consent; but Miss Mercer, who came in, said she had promised the Regent not to leave her alone with any one. I said, rather stiffly, that she might go with me, and Her Royal Highness withdrew with me into the part of the room separated by columns, when I gave her her seals, to which was annexed a key, and a letter which had come during her absence. She met me with great joy, and told me I was to stay with her, for she had written offering to go to her father on that condition, and that she would retain her maid, and receive the visits of Miss Mercer. We waited some time for the return of the Bishop with the answer to these proposals, and at length I offered to go to Carlton House, and endeavour to see the Prince. I did, but could not see him. I was told that I might see the Chancellor or Lord Liverpool. I answered I was ready to see either of them, when I was ushered into a room where the Chancellor and Lord Ellenborough were seated at each end of a long table. The former informed me that the Bishop was returned with the answer that Her Royal Highness must submit unconditionally, on which I replied that I had nothing more to do but return to her, and take her maid and night-things, as she might be obliged to remain that night in Connaught Place...... I went back to Princess Charlotte, taking with me Mrs. Lewis, her dresser; and when I arrived I found the Bishop had stated she must submit to return to her father unconditionally,

ditionally, holding out the hope that Miss Mercer would be allowed to visit her. I saw the letter she had written. It was very flattering to me; but I did not wish to have been made an object of controversy between her and her father. It was two in the morning before the Duke of York arrived to take her away. I was too much affected to follow her down stairs; and I afterwards heard from the Duke of Sussex that a hackney-coach followed the Duke of York with the Chancellor and two other lawyers in it, as also that when dear Princess Charlotte arrived at Carlton House she was made to remain in the court-yard for more than half-an-hour, while they were debating within how they would receive her.'

Let us now compare with Miss Knight's story the account given by Lord Brougham† of the same event, thirty years after its occurrence. It must be premised that this cannot be well understood without reading Lord Eldon's succinct narrative of his own share in it, as reported by Mr. Twiss:- {

'When we arrived I informed her a carriage was at the door, and we would attend her home. But home she would not go. She kicked and bounced, but would not go. Well, to do my office as gently as I could, I told her I was sorry for it, for until she did go, she would be obliged to entertain us, as we would not leave her. last she accompanied us.' +

At

'But this,' says Lord Brougham, 'is a perfect mis-statement, indeed a pure fiction, and there are three persons living who know it to be so, and, having read the above lines, agree in so declaring it. When the Princess's escape became known at Carlton House (for it is not true, as stated by Mr. Twiss, that the Prince and Bishop went to see her at Warwick House, to inform her of the new constitution of her household, and that she asked leave to retire, and escaped by a back-staircase), the Regent sent notice to the heads of the law, and of his own Duchy of Cornwall establishment. Soon after these arrived, each in a separate hackney-coach, at Connaught Terrace, the Princess of Wales's residence. There were the Chancellor, Lord Ellenborough, Mr. Adam, Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall, Mr. Leach, the Bishop of Salisbury, and afterwards the Duke of Kent. There had already come to join the Princess Charlotte Miss Mercer, now Lady Keith and Countess de Flahault, who came by the Regent's express desire as his daughter's most confidential friend; Mr. Brougham (for whom the young Princess had sent as

*Vol. i. p. 304-310.

of vol. ii.

We quote from the Lord Brougham by Lord separate account in the

Some slight additional details are given at the beginning

Law Review,' vol. i.: 'Life of Lord Eldon,' attributed to Campbell, in his 'Lives of the Chancellors.' There is a Edinburgh Review' for 1838, which is commonly ascribed to Lord Brougham also. And, lastly, there is the contemporaneous account in the Whig paper, The Morning Chronicle,' of July 14, 1814 (Miss Knight, vol. i. p. 311), which, from internal evidence, looks very like a communiqué from Mr. Brougham. All three vary in some particulars.

Life of Lord Eldon, vol. ii. p. 523.

a person

a person she had already often consulted); the Duke of Sussex, whose attendance he had taken the precaution of asking, knowing that he happened to dine in the immediate neighbourhood; the Princess of Wales, too, had arrived from her villa at Blackheath, where she was when Mr. Brougham and Miss Mercer arrived. Her Royal Highness was accompanied by Lady Charlotte Lindsay, then in waiting. Dinner had been ordered by the Princess Charlotte, and the party, except the Duke of Sussex, who did not immediately arrive, were at table, when from time to time the arrival of the great personages sent by the Regent was announced, as each of their hackney-coaches in succession came into the street. Some were suffered to remain in these vehicles, better fitted for convenience than for state; but the presumptive heiress to the Crown having chosen that conveyance, it was the humour of the party, which she was now delighting with her humour and interesting by her high spirits, like a bird flown from a cage, that these exalted subjects should become familiar with a residence which had so lately been graced with the occupancy of their future sovereign.' Exceptions, however, were made, and the Duke of York immediately was asked into & room on the ground floor. It is an undoubted fact, that not one of the persons sent by the Regent, not even the Duke of York, ever was in any of the apartments above-stairs for one instant until the young Princess had agreed to leave the house and return home. The Princess of Wales saw the Duke of York for a few minutes below; and this was the only communication between the company above and those below-of whom all but the Duke and the Bishop remained outside the house. After a great deal of discussion, the Princess asked Mr. Brougham what he, on the whole, would advise her to do. He said, "Return to Warwick House or to Carlton House, and on no account pass a night out of it." She was exceedingly affected-even to tears-and asked if he too refused to stand by her. The day was beginning to break-a Westminster election to reinstate Lord William (after the sentence on him which abolished the pillory and led to his re-election) was to be held that day at ten o'clock. Mr. Brougham led the young Princess to the window, and said, “I have but to show you to the multitude which in a few hours will fill these streets and that park, and possibly Carlton House will be pulled down; but in an hour after the soldiers will be called out, blood will flow, and if your Royal Highness lives a hundred years, it will never be forgotten that your running away from your home and your father was the cause of the mischief; and you may depend upon it the English people so hate blood that you will never get over it." She at once perceived the truth of this statement, and, without any kind of hesitation, agreed to see her uncle below, and accompany him home. But she told him she would not go in any carriage except one of her father's, as her character might suffer; she therefore retired to the drawing-room until a royal coach was sent for, and she then went home with the Duke of York.'

So far his Lordship. We omit the singular story which follows, about the 'protocol executed in sexplicate original,' at Connaught

House,