The Queen and Lord M Page 18

  ‘Now wait a minute, wait a minute,’ cautioned Winchelsea. ‘You are jumping to conclusions. Are you sure it’s the Prime Minister you should be blaming?’

  ‘I can’t very well challenge the Queen.’

  ‘Oh, so it is the Queen you wish to castigate.’

  ‘If she were not royal and a woman my challenge would go to her. As it can’t, it goes to her Prime Minister.’

  ‘You’re a hot-headed idiot, Hastings. Look here, go and see the Prime Minister first. Get an account of the story from him. I doubt he had anything to do with the affair. This is women’s tittle-tattle. Don’t make a fool of yourself.’

  Hastings was impressed with this advice and agreed that he would see the Prime Minister first before calling him out.

  * * *

  As soon as Lord Melbourne heard that Lord Hastings wished to see him he guessed for what reason. A disastrous affair, this Flora Hastings matter. What a pity they had not let well alone. The trouble was that the whole press had taken up and exaggerated the story and it was being suggested that the Queen was deeply involved.

  ‘Now, Hastings,’ said Lord Melbourne in his most bland and worldly manner, ‘what is all this about?’

  ‘I am sure you have a very good notion. I am disgusted by the way in which my sister has been treated.’

  ‘Ah yes, yes. So are we all. A most unfortunate business.’

  ‘Fabricated by malicious people! Flora’s innocence has been proved.’

  ‘At which I am delighted,’ said the Prime Minister. ‘Not that I had any doubts that it could be otherwise.’

  ‘How unfortunate that you did not state this at the time, Lord Melbourne.’

  ‘Oh, but I did by implication. My advice when Lady Tavistock came to see me was: “Do nothing.” And since she and her friends were so certain she was right – which was clearly very rash and uncharitable of them – I begged them to wait and see. “Wait and see.” Those were my very words. For I knew that the only way in which I could make these ladies see logic was to point out to them that while Lady Flora remained at Court under their eyes she must before long produce the infant if that infant existed. I assure you, my dear Hastings, I did all I could to urge these ladies to act with discretion.’

  Lord Hastings was temporarily subdued. He could see that he had been rash to think of challenging the Prime Minister to a duel. But he was not going to let the matter be thrust aside.

  ‘I am determined,’ he said, ‘to get to the root of this affair and to discover who set these ugly and criminal rumours into motion; and as Her Majesty seems to be at the heart of the matter I shall ask for an audience.’

  Melbourne was horrified.

  ‘But you cannot ask the Queen for explanations!’

  ‘I am determined to get to the root of this, no matter whom I have to ask.’

  ‘I think,’ said the Prime Minister, ‘that the Duke of Wellington might be able to help you. I will tell him you are coming to see him and I will ask him to listen to what you have to say and advise you.’

  Lord Hastings agreed and when he had gone, uneasy as Lord Melbourne felt on behalf of the Queen, he was relieved that he had been able to pass the rather tiresome young Hastings over to the Duke of Wellington.

  * * *

  The Duke of Wellington was always eager to give advice. His fighting days were over; his popularity had waned (because he had stood against the Reform Bill); he was now a considerable politician but Parliament could never take the place of the battlefield. He was fast becoming a kind of father figure to the country and it was a custom to call him in for consultation at any time of difficulty.

  He was delighted therefore to advise the impetuous young Marquis.

  ‘It was a shocking affair,’ he conceded, ‘and therefore best forgotten. There has been a great deal of comment about it already. It is much wiser therefore to let sleeping dogs lie.’

  ‘This,’ said the Marquis, ‘is exactly what I don’t intend to do. Sleeping scandal, you mean! Yes, sleeping! Just waiting until someone comes along and prods it to life. Then we shall have the old accusations again. No, I intend to bring it out into the open and kill it stone dead.’

  He left Wellington and wrote at once to Melbourne. He could get no satisfaction from the Duke, he said; and he was determined to have satisfaction. Therefore he asked Lord Melbourne to arrange for him an interview with Her Majesty the Queen.

  * * *

  Impatiently he waited for a reply. None came. Furiously he sat down and wrote again telling Lord Melbourne that his patience was exhausted. As Lord Melbourne had told him that the Court ladies were responsible for the treatment of Lady Flora he was determined to ask the Queen for an explanation. He did not believe it was due to the deliberate actions of Her Majesty but put it down to baneful influences which were about the throne and which poisoned human feelings. He was addressing himself to the Prime Minister as the organ through which all things were now carried out at Court.

  When Melbourne received this missive he realised that it would be dangerous to ignore the young man. Hastings was in a fighting mood and the matter needed the most delicate of handling.

  He wrote back at once saying that he had been away and he would submit the request to the Queen, and at once went to Victoria.

  ‘It is this distressing matter of Flora Hastings again, I fear.’

  ‘Oh, surely not!’

  ‘I think it will be necessary for you to see this young man.’

  ‘I? But what have I to do with it?’

  ‘He blames your ladies and seems to think that you are behind them in this.’

  ‘What nonsense! Naturally I wanted to know the truth. If Lady Flora was an immoral woman I didn’t want her at my Court. I have seen her and expressed my sympathy. I have sent to ask how she is progressing. Surely that is enough?’

  ‘Oh,’ said Lord Melbourne comfortably, ‘if you will just see the young man he’ll be soothed. You will know how to charm him.’

  ‘I don’t care to be forced into this interview.’

  ‘There is no question of forcing. Who would attempt to force the Queen? I will just give you one of my pieces of advice. You have never been averse to listening to them at less stormy times. You may reject it of course but I am going to be my bold and uncompromising self and say that you are much too clever not to listen to an old man who has seen a great deal of the world.’

  ‘Dear Lord M, why cannot everyone be as kind and understanding as you are?’

  ‘I might ask why everyone cannot be as reasonable as Your Majesty.’

  ‘So you are absolutely certain that I should see him?’

  ‘I think so. Be noncommittal. Tell him you regret what happened and that you have nothing but respect for his dear sister and she will be treated with honour, etc., at Court. That will satisfy him.’

  ‘So it is really a matter of placating this young man?’

  ‘No, it’s not as simple as that. It’s a matter of placating the people. This affair – alas – has been widely reported in the press and of course wildly exaggerated. The people take sides in these matters and they are invariably on the side of the oppressed – the wretched Lady Flora – devil take her – in this instance.’

  Victoria could not help smiling at Lord Melbourne’s quaint expressions.

  ‘I will see what I can do with the trying young man,’ she said.

  * * *

  In her most regal and dignified manner she received Lord Hastings as she had said she would. She told him that she greatly regretted that such a matter should have occurred at her Court and that it was most distasteful to her. She realised that Lady Flora was blameless, so she should be allowed to remain at Court while she wished to do so and would be treated there with the utmost respect. As far as she could see that ended the matter.

  Lord Hastings found it difficult to argue with the Queen, so he came away dissatisfied; but even though the Queen had intimated that she wished the matter to be closed, he soon realised that thi
s could not be so. The press brought out the story again and worried it like a dog with a favourite bone trying to get a little more meat off it. People were taking sides. The majority of them were with Lady Flora but an unpleasant rumour was started that she was actually pregnant, that this was not the first time, and that she had recently left the Court to give birth to an illegitimate child.

  ‘I will not allow this,’ cried Lord Hastings. ‘I don’t care for anyone … not even the Queen. I am determined to make sure that no one is going to question the honour of our house.’

  He wrote to Lord Tavistock demanding that he ask the truth of his wife; he also wrote to Lord Portman. Acrimonious letters passed between them. Lord Hastings believed he knew who was at the centre of the plot against his sister and it came from the foreign influences which existed at Court. This was an accusation against the Baroness Lehzen.

  Lady Hastings, Flora’s mother, took up the fight and wrote to the Queen, reminding Victoria that she was a mother defending her much maligned daughter and she wanted an explanation of the ‘atrocious calumnies and unblushing falsehoods against her daughter’s reputation’. She wanted to know who had betrayed the Queen into following a course of action which had attempted to degrade the victim of their persecution. People looked for sympathy to a female sovereign, she added. This was not a matter to be hushed up.

  The letter was sent to the Prime Minister with a request that he should deliver it to the Queen.

  He took it to her himself.

  ‘Is there no end to this tiresome business?’ demanded Victoria petulantly.

  ‘There is an end to everything but time and space,’ said Lord Melbourne lightly.

  ‘I hear that when the injured lady took a drive this morning she was loudly cheered in the streets.’

  ‘Unfortunate,’ said Lord Melbourne. ‘And also an indication. But I think we should handle Mamma Hastings with tact.’

  ‘Of course she is a mother and she writes as though she is very upset.’

  ‘But the matter is done with and I should have thought she would have known better than to address Your Majesty in this way. It’s a breach of etiquette. Will you trust me to reply?’

  ‘Please do. But tell her that I am sorry it all happened and let her know I understand her feelings.’

  Lord Melbourne gave her one of his tender looks and sat down to write the letter immediately so that she could approve it.

  Her Majesty’s allowances for the feelings of a mother diminished her surprise that Lady Hastings should address her thus. Her Majesty bade her Prime Minister convey to Lady Hastings her deep concern for the unfortunate occurrence and was anxious to do everything to soothe the feelings of Lady Flora’s relations.

  ‘That should settle the old lady,’ said Lord Melbourne.

  But it did not. In a short time Lady Hastings was writing once more – this time to Melbourne. She now demanded the dismissal of Sir James Clark.

  This, said Lord Melbourne, was insolence; and he wrote to Lady Hastings telling her that her demand was ‘unprecedented and objectionable’ and that although she was a lady and the head of a respected family he would do no more than acknowledge that he had received such a letter.

  ‘They will give us no satisfaction,’ said Lord Hastings, ‘and there is only one thing to do, unless we are to slink off with our tails between our legs. We will publish the correspondence.’

  The press was delighted; so were the people. Here was a mighty scandal. The Morning Post had a scoop and it intended to make the most of it. The whole story was revived. The Tories were trying to make it a political issue. Some declared that Lord Melbourne should apologise to Lady Hastings for his discourtesy towards her. In the clubs, in the streets, in the taverns, the Flora Hastings affair was discussed and the three principal actors in the piece were said to be Lady Flora, the Queen and Lord Melbourne.

  ‘It will die down,’ said Lord Melbourne. ‘These things always do.’

  The Queen read the papers every day and was hurt and amazed to read criticisms of herself.

  When she rode out in the streets the people were silent. They no longer cheered her; yet Flora Hastings’s carriage was held up by people who applauded her and wanted to tell her that they were on her side.

  It was astonishing. Victoria could not believe it. She was no longer their little duck, their dear little Queen; she was a wicked woman who had cruelly slandered an innocent one.

  ‘Who would have thought such a little thing could change them towards me,’ she cried.

  ‘It is often the little things in life which are the most important,’ said Lord Melbourne.

  She was depressed.

  ‘It’ll pass,’ said Lord Melbourne philosophically. ‘It always does.’

  ‘How right you were when you impressed on me how important this affair could become.’

  ‘And you listened to me. Therefore let us regard it as a lesson.’

  That lifted her spirits a little. Lord Melbourne said that any experience was worth while if one learned from it. She had certainly learned from this. And she still had dear Lord Melbourne as her companion.

  And that, she reminded herself, was a great deal for which to be thankful.

  Chapter IX

  THE BEDCHAMBER AFFAIR

  The Palace feud had intensified, and the happiness the Queen had experienced during the ‘pleasantest summer’ had completely disappeared. The Duchess was becoming more and more tiresome and seemed to do everything possible to make life difficult. She kept Lady Flora constantly in her company, was over-solicitous for her health as though to draw attention to her own compassion compared with her daughter’s heartlessness. The Flora Hastings scandal was still discussed and of course by this time it was obvious that she would not be pregnant and was really ill.

  Victoria was touchy, irritable, snapping at dear Daisy and sometimes being imperious even with Lord Melbourne. Of course his extreme tact and rather cynical jocularity overcame these moods and he would laugh at her in a funny respectful way, bow with exaggerated formality and call her Majesty, so that she would have to laugh and feel better for a while.

  She raged against the Tories and their horrid paper, the Morning Post, which had blown up the silly Palace intrigue to a mighty scandal; she referred to Flora Hastings as that ‘nasty creature’; she worried about putting on weight, her lack of inches and her health. She was getting really melancholy and that, she once told Lord Melbourne, was how it probably started with her grandfather.

  Lord Melbourne said it was not in the least like her grandfather. He had had a rash and had been unable to stop talking. Lord Melbourne thought where she did show a lack of balance was in comparing herself with him. Yet look how angry she had been when she had been likened to Queen Charlotte and the Duke of Gloucester!

  That made her laugh.

  ‘Dear Lord M!’ she cried. ‘What should I do without you? Whenever I feel melancholy I remember that you will be coming in to see me and that makes me feel much better.’

  Lord Melbourne looked a little thoughtful and wondered whether he ought to tell her about the uncertain position of the Government. Was it better to do so and prepare her or let the inevitable burst upon her? It would certainly do nothing to relieve her present gloomy feelings; on the other hand he did not wish it to come as a surprise.

  Better perhaps to prepare her gradually.

  ‘Colonies can try us sorely,’ he said. ‘There are troubles looming in Jamaica now.’

  ‘I am sure my Government with you at its head will be able to handle them successfully.’

  ‘Oh, I have the utmost confidence in Lord Palmerston. There are, however, so many questions to be settled. There is controversy over the apprentices there. The prisons are overcrowded. Some of the planters are far from humane and they clap their workers into prison for the slightest offence which results of course in this dreadful overcrowding. We brought in a Bill to improve all this but the Colonial Assembly were hostile to it. “Trouble! Trouble! Boil and
Bubble.” If it isn’t Canada it’s Jamaica. Who would have Colonies?’

  ‘Having them we must look after them.’

  ‘Quite so,’ said Lord Melbourne. ‘We are going to bring in a Bill to suspend the Jamaican Constitution temporarily but Sir Robert Peel and his merry men are not going to agree with us on this point.’

  ‘How tiresome they are!’

  He looked at her more closely. She had not grasped the implication. He had been trying to tell her for some time that the Whig Parliament was on the brink of disaster. One could not govern in the present circumstances. The strength of the Tories was increasing; that of the Whigs diminishing; and Sir Robert Peel was poised at the ready to leap into Lord Melbourne’s shoes.

  No, she was too sad for him to drive home the point now, but he had sown the seeds. She would go away and think about the Jamaican situation and the powerful Sir Robert Peel who could – and most probably would – in a very short time be here with her talking to her of the country’s affairs in the place of Lord Melbourne.

  He allowed the conversation to slip back to the Flora Hastings affair which, unpleasant as it was, would he knew be more tolerable to the Queen.

  ‘When the press takes up a royal scandal we can be sure it will be with us for a long time.’

  ‘That wretched Morning Post!’

  ‘You should not take it to heart. The Tories are always looking for a chance to attack us and they are trying to make me the scapegoat of this affair.’

  ‘I shall never allow that.’

  ‘This is one of the matters in which Your Imperious Majesty has no say, alas. This affair is making as much noise as the troubles of George IV and his wife.’

  ‘She was tried … for adultery. That must have been very shocking.’

  ‘Yes, but the people like a heroine. They could hardly make one of her and your royal Uncle was scarcely cast for the role of hero at that time. It was very different when he was a young man. Then he was a real Prince Charming. When I was a boy I remember the talk of him. He was in and out of scrapes but the people adored him. He was good-looking and gallant and even when Mary Robinson threatened to publish his love letters they were still on his side against his virtuous and let us confess it rather dull father.’