The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 229: what you’re looking at

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gherewith I have at different times endeavoured to srepere you for the solemn moment that is now at band f” “Then the Prince has arrived?” said Caroline, her heart fluttering with expectation: and at the next moment she heaved a sigh as she thought of the young, the handsome, and the far-off Baron Bergami ! CHAPTER CLXXVIL THE MEETING. THE conversation between Caroline of Brunswick and the Earl of Malmesbury, and which. was carried on in the French language, has no doubt tended to throw some additional light upon the character of that amiable princess. A child of nature, art and artifice had not entirely weaned her from the habit of thinking and acting as nature prompted ;—and it has doubtless struck the reader that to an almost girlish candour and juvenile in- genuousness of disposition, she united a keen appreciation of right and wrong—an accurate dis- crimination between justice and injustice—and a power of separating the artificial from the real, the dross from the pure ore, in her estimation of in- dividuals, of society, or of things. Her natural quickness at rejoinder and repartee made her a formidable antagonist against a person who had a bad argument to sustam;—and the occasional freedoms of speech in which she indulged, and which can scarcely be called levities, must not be judged acoording to the English standard of eti- quette and delicacy, but must be attributed to the greater license allowed by continental manners and customs in that respect. ° Bat wo shall prefer the plan of suffering the true character of the Princess Caroline to develop itself gradually to the reader, in proportion as the narra- tive itself proceeds, rather than pause on this oo- casion to chronicle a lengthened commentary on the subject. We will therefore at once hasten to observe that scarcely had the deep-drawn sigh heaved to the memory of Baron Bergami, escaped her lips, when the Prince of Wales entered the epartment. Caroline instantaneously rose from her chair and advanced to meet her intended husband. Rapid was the glance which each threw at the other,—with a mutaral curiosity, cager and intense on either side, to know the dest or the worst that was to be gleaned in thas first transitory survey ! Simultaneously as their looks met, so did they 1 fall for an iastant: then they encountered each other again—and this time the eyes of the Princess were cast down beneath the bolder, and stronger, and more searching scrutiny that her intended hus- band now bestowed upon her. The Prince went thither already so complete a prey to prejudice, that had he found in the Princess an angel of perfection, his imagination would have prompted him to behold heaven's own radiance through the dingy medium of earth’s grossest at- mosphere. It was not that he had merely been assured she was not beautiful: but pains had been systematically taken to render her an object of loathing, abhorrence, and disgust in respect to those very points on which he was known to be most perticalar. Thus, although at the very firzé glance he saw enough to convince him that she was not quite so repulsive as he had been led to suppose yet the inveteracy of pre-conceived would not allow him to behold sufficient to efford. him any pleasing surprise or agrecabie disappoint— ment. * On the side of the Prince, therefore, it was a very bad opinion slightly improved by the first, survey: but on that of the Princess it was a very - good opinion much moderated by the same result He had expected to find her a disgusting creature —whereas he could not help acknowledging at the first glance that the portraiture had been over- coloured : she had expected to encounter the very personification of all masculine beauty, dignity, grace, affability, and fascination—whereas she could not help thinking that her fatore husband was somewhat stout, that his countenance had a dranken looking flush, and that he was by no means theex- quisite Adonis public report, private letters, and his own portrait had represented him. Thas, within the first minute of their encounter —and before a single word was exchanged—the Princess rose a few degrees in the estimate of the Prinoe, while he fell proportionately in her judg- ment. But scarcely had those glances been exchanged, —giances which engendered impressions, or ratlier altered and modified pre-conceived ones, with the rapidity which thought alonecan achieve had the royai couple found themselves standing face to face, when the Earl of Malmesbury ocere- moniously introduced them to each other. Then the Princess, in obedience to a hint pre- viously given by that noble oracle of courtly etiquette, knelt down at the feet of her intended husband: while the latter, actuated by the obser- vances of the same conventional code, hastened to raise her and touch her forehead with his lips. Bat scarcely had he performed this ceremony whea he turned rudely, brutally, and even savagely away ; —and, dragging Malmesbury aside, hastily whis- pered, “I am altogether overcome : she is not a fit nba forme! Get me a glass of brandy—or I shall | Aa “Permit me to remind your Royal Highness,” said the grave, solemn, and sententious Malmes- bury, “that the rules of etiquette make no mention of brandy on such an oocasion as the present.” “Damn the rules of etiquette !” ejaculated the Prince brutally. “I will go to the Queen and tell her that I'll soover forfeit my right to the crown than take that German slut as my wife.” And with these words the heir-appareat to the British throne—the first gentleman in Hurepe— flung himself out of the room, banging the door violently behind him. Utterly discomfitted, the Earl of Malmesbury staggered against the wall—perfectly aghast st the extraordinary scene which had just taken place, and with all his notions relative to Court etiquetts thrown into such a complete jumble that if any- body had asked him at the momeat whether it was proper to stand upon oue’s head or one’s heels in the King’s presence, he would have been totally in- competent to solve the difficulty. The interview between the Prince of Wales and Caroline of Branswick had lasted exactly three s—and on seeing him depart in the pre- ecomilcooolks