Love Romances of the Aristocracy

as his eldest brother, George III., of "revered memory," in spite of his intrigue with the fair Quakeress, was the least vicious. Each brother

le conquest, which began as soon as he had emancipated himself from his mother's apron strings, he left behind him a wake of ruined lives; not the least tragic of which was that of the lo

lame, no woman was ever wooed with appa

, and lay down and dreamt of you, had you ten thousand times in my arms, kissing you and telling you how much I loved and adored you, a

letter he

tion mine does. How happy will that day be to me that brings you back! I shall

t it burst the bounds of prose, and

ove, and, consc

maid, believe m

nge, no future

d basis of my

ue under the very nose of her jealous husband, who at last was driven to sue for divorce. He won an easy verdict, and with it ￡10,000 damages-a bill which George III. himself had ultimate

ed his blighting path one summer day in the year 1771, at Brighton-a radiantly beautiful

arhampton, and a member of a family noted for the beauty of its women, and the wild, lawless living of its men. Her brother, Colonel Luttrell

living Derbyshire squire, who left her a widow at twenty-two, in the prime of her b

le, who had a keen eye for f

uette beyond measure, artful as Cleopatra, and completely mistress of all her passions and projects. Indee

portrait Wa

ed, and her coquetry was so active, so varied, and yet so habitual, that it was difficult not to see through it

he suit of one of the legion of lovers who swelled her retinue, one General Smith, a handsome man with a seductive rent-roll to add to his attractions. But the moment the Prince began to cast admiring

dantly clear to Henry Frederick. Her favours-after a period of coquetry and coy reluctance-were at his disposal; but the price to be paid for them was a wedding-ring-nothing less. And such was the infatuation she had ins

Princess of Wales, whose frowns he dreaded still more. But his Duchess was inexorable. She declined to play any longer the r?le of "virtuous

. Had he but known how inopportune the time was he would surely have taken the first boat back to Calais rather than face his brother's anger. George was distracted by trouble at home and abroad. His mother was dying; across the Atlantic the clouds of war were

ckhead! You villain!" he shouted, purple in face and hoarse with passion. "I tell you that woman shall never be a Royal Duchess-she shall never be anything." "What mu

ore her child was born. And within a few weeks she was installed at Cumberland House, with all the state and more than the airs of a Royal Princess. The days of concealment were over; she stood avowed to the world, Duchess of Cumberland and sister-in-law to the King; an

?le of Princess. "No woman of her time," says Lord Hervey, "performed the honours of her drawing-room with such grace, affability, and dignity." And, in spite of George's frowns, the only real thorn in her bed of roses was the knowledge that t

gether in the same box at the opera-an overture to which the Duchess of Gloucester reto

King and the Queen snubbed her mercilessly for her pains, detracted little from her triumph and gratification. What her Grace of Gloucester had won by submis

set herself to debase the Prince of Wales-a youth whose natural tendencies made him a pliant tool in her hands. She enmeshed him in the web of her beauty and charms; she pandered to his vanity and his passions; while her husband initiated him into the vices of which he himself was a past-master-drinking, gambling, and lust. Notorious profligate as George

her heart was empty and desolate. Her fickle husband soon wearied of her charms, and flaunted his fresh conquests before her face. In the royal family circle, into which she had forced her way, sh

with excesses, regretted by none, execrated by many.

alive an

it is on

s no more t

of years-unhappy years of solitude and neglect, a Princess only in name-harassed and shamed by her eldest sister, Elizabeth, a woman of c

nionships, was imprisoned for debt, and actually bribed a hairdresser to marry her, in order to recover her liberty. On the Continent, to which she escaped, she fell to stil