The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 244: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE MYSTERIES. ladies ;—and you will shine, if you choose, as the central star of the most splendid galaxy of rank, wealth, fashion, and aristocratic influence, upon the face of the earth. Surely, then, this is a posi- tion for which you may feel grateful: ‘it is almost the highest to which human ambition could possi- bly aspire—and even the higher one will some day be yours also, Well, madam—you are now Prin- cess of Wales—and in due time you may become Queen of England. Let all this suffice you. Con- tent yourself with the brilliancy and the grandeur of this position—enjoy yourself as you will—be en- tirely your own mistress—and, in return, leave me to be as entirely my own master !” The Princess Caroline fell back upon her pillow —covered her countenance with her hands—and strove to collect her thoughts. She seemed as if she were walking in a dream—or endeavouring to follow some object that was guiding her through a mist. Athwart the cloudy confusion of her ideas she fancied that she caught a scintillation of the Prince’s real meaning: but she was too much bewildered to fix her mental gaze steadily upon it and assure herself that she did really comprehend its true nature. “Do you understand me?” demanded his Royal Highness, after a long pause. / “No. You must explain yourself more fully,” she replied, with the curtness of an intense agita- tion which she vainly struggied to subdue. “3 mean, then,” resumed the heir-apparent, in a tone of vexation, “that after the honeymoon you will consent to exist as my wife only in name, and that you will not attempt the slightest interference with my pursuits or my pleasures.” “Ah! I can consent to thai, provided that the repudiation be not public,” said the Princess, her mind suddenly relieved from a cruel anxiety. “I thought, in the first instance, that you were about to propose a complete separation;—and I would retire from the world altogether—seek the pro- foundest solitude—or even fly from existence itself, rather than be divorced the very day after my marriage. For, alas! the world wouid put its own construction upon such an event-——” “We need not discuss that point, madam,” in- terposed the heir-apparent,—“ since I have assured you that I contemplate nothing of the sort. No: it is my wish, as much as it can be yours, that we should sustain the conventionalities of married life. In public you will receive from me the attention and respect due to a wife : in private you will tutor yourself to exercise all possible forbearance. Upon this understanding we may avoid an open rupture —We may even become friends——” “It is for you to dictate, and for me to obey,” said the Princess, in a tone of real and unaffected meeicness. “Ah! but what I want you to do, madam.” cried the heir-apparent, “is to pledge yourself—solemnly pledge yourself — that you will keep your own counsel and make no confidants. You must not Speak ill of me in the letters which you write home to Germany—nor when the King asks you from time to time whether you are happy—nor when you are in private and ‘familiar discourse with my sisters—nor in any unguarded moment, amongst the ladie# who -will become your acquaint- ances——* “Oh! I will keep everything treasured up in my 23] own heart,” exclaimed Caroline. “Have you any farther commands to give me ?” OO “Do you address that question to me in serious- ness or in mockery ?” cried the Prince, turning his looks completely upon the Princess, who had just withdrawn her hands from over her countenance. “I know not why your Royal Highness should suspect me of duplicity, in language, in manner, or in thought,” was the mild and gentle remonstrance. “TI did not expect to win your love—but I did not despair of obtaining your confidence. To every- thing you have proposed, I assent : to everything you may propose, I shall likewise assent—provided that you do naught to disgrace me publicly. I have now nothing but my good intentions—my fair fame ~—and my own rectitude of conduct to enable me to secure the regard of the British people——” “A fig for their regard!” ejaculated the Prince, contemptuously. “The British people are born to be the slaves of their Sovereigns—the serfs of their rulers—the ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ for the high-born and great ;—and so long as they remain quiet, we give them credit for loyalty. When they show any manifestation of discontent, we set the Attorney-General to work —and he soon sends the ringleaders to the gibbet or the hulks. If that won’t do, then we treat the people with a few charges of cavalry—or may be a dose of cannon balls ;—and when we have com- pletely put them down, we proclaim to the world that the rebels have returned to their allegiance. That isthe way we manage matters in this country ; —and therefore you need not trouble yourself for a single moment about the people’s regard. But, to return to the topic most interesting to our- selves,” exclaimed his Royal Highness,—“do we now perfectly understand each other ?” “TJ at least understand the wishes that you have expressed,” said Caroline ; “and you have received the assurance of my readiness to:comply with them.” “And you pledge yourself to implicit secrecy with regard to this compact?” observed the heir. apparent. “TI will make no pledge of so solemn a nature unless you give me one in return,” said the Prin- cess, after a few moments’ pause, during which the natural dignity of her sex began to assert its empire. “ And what pledge do you demand?” inquired the Prince, somewhat startled by the sudden dis- play of spirit on the part of her whom a moment before he had looked upon as a soft, silly fool easily modelled to his own will, and equally easy to be crushed altogether. — “I demand your most solemn and sacred pre- mise that you will never inflict upon me any public disgrace, nor subject me to any humiliation which may become patent to the eyes of the world ?”—and the Princess enunciated these terms in a more decided voice and with a more resolute manner than she had previously ventured to assume throughout this painful interview. “I give you the pledge you require,” said the heir-apparent : and he repeated the words in which she had expressed herself. “ Now you will ratify your own portion of our compact with an equal so- lemuity ?” “ Yes—unhesitatingly,” replied the Princesa. “L vow, then, to keep my own coundl—to maks 09 tet rl ElOOO® SS