volous excuses. "I then," says Walpole, ear- CHAP "nestly desired the King to admit Bolingbroke to "the audience he solicited, and said, that if this was not done the clamour would be, that I kept "his Majesty to myself, and would allow none to "come near him to tell the truth."* Through this means was Bolingbroke admitted, but his representations produced no effect; and the King afterwards mentioned them slightingly to his minister, and called them BAGATELLES! But Sir Robert was not ignorant that this attack, though now warded off, would be constantly pointed anew, and that a genius so transcendent as Bolingbroke is formidable even in its wildest schemes. The influence of the Duchess of Kendal might be once repulsed, but not very long resisted; for it is almost incredible how much even the weakest mind can control and sway even the strongest by habits of access at all hours. In Walpole's own words, "as St. John had the Duchess entirely on "his side, I need not add what must, or might in time, have been the consequence." Speaker Onslow was even assured by Mr. Pelham that Walpole was so convinced of his approaching downfal, that he had determined to retire with a peerage; and was withheld by the remonstrances of the Duke of Devonshire and of Mr. Etough's Minutes of a Conversation with Walpole, September 13. 1737. XIV. 1727. CHAP. the Princess of Wales.* It is probable that this XIV. 1727. might be a sudden sally, but never a fixed resolution; and Walpole had the less reason to be very solicitous about a peerage since that honour had recently been conferred upon his son. Certain it is that Bolingbroke fully expected that, in the next session, his restoration would be completedperhaps his administration renewed. All these projects and hopes, however, were postponed till the King's expected return from Hanover. He had set out for that place on the 3d of June, O. S., with the Duchess of Kendal and Lord Townshend in his train. Late on the 9th he arrived at Delden, apparently in perfect health, and again resumed his journey at four o'clock the next morning. But as he was travelling that forenoon, he was seized with an apoplectic fit in his coach, and on coming to Ippenburen was observed to be quite lethargic; his hands were motionless, his eyes fixed, and his tongue hung out of his mouth. His attendants wished to stop at Ippenburen, and obtain assistance; but the King recovered his speech so far as to cry out several times, impatiently, "Osnabruck! Osna"bruck!" Even in that extremity these well-trained courtiers durst not disobey him, and hastened on. But when they reached Osnabruck the King was already dead. He was taken to the house of *Speaker Onslow's Remarks, Coxe's Walpole, vol. ii. p. 571. See also Swift's Letter to Sheridan, May 13. 1727. XIV. 1727. his brother the Prince-Bishop, and immediately CHAP blooded; but all attempts to recover him were useless. His interment took place at Hanover, in the vault of his ancestors. And thus suddenly closed his checkered and eventful, but,, on the whole, prosperous, constitutional, and indulgent reign. An express was sent with the fatal news to Lord Townshend, and another to the Duchess of Kendal, who were both at different places in the rear. The minister, after proceeding to Osnabruck, and finding that all was over, hastened back to England. The favourite tore her hair and beat her breast, with other signs of extreme grief, and then dismissing the English ladies who attended her, travelled, onwards to Brunswick. She did not disdain, however, again to honour England with her presence, residing chiefly at Kendal House, near Twickenham, till her death, in 1743, when she left enormous wealth to be divided amongst her German relatives. The reader, who in the reign of George the First has seen his mistresses so often mentioned and his consort not once, will be surprised to learn that the latter had died only seven months before her husband. Sophia-Dorothea of Zell was the name and lineage of this unfortunate princess. When married, in 1682, she was young, accomplished, beautiful. But with indiscretion, though probably no more than indiscretion, she received the attentions of Count Konigsmark, a Swedish noble, CHAP. man who had come on a visit to Hanover. Her XIV. husband was absent at the army; her father-in-law, 1727. the old Elector, was prepossessed against her, partly by the cabals of his mistress, and partly by her own imprudence of behaviour. The details of this transaction, and of the black deed that followed it, are shrouded in mystery; thus much only is certain, that one evening as Konigsmark had come out of the apartment of the Princess, and was crossing a passage in the palace, several persons, who had been ready posted, rushed upon and despatched him. The spot of this murder is still shown; and many years afterwards, in some repairs, the bones of the unhappy man were discovered beneath the floor. The Princess was placed under arrest; the Prince, on his return, was convinced of her guilt, and concurred in her imprisonment, and obtained from the Consistory a divorce in December, 1694. Sophia was closely confined to the solitary castle of Ahlen, where she dragged on a miserable existence for thirty-two years, till, on the 13th of November, 1726, she was released by death, when she was mentioned in the Gazette as Electress-Dowager of Hanover. During her confinement she used to receive the sacrament every week, and never failed on those occasions to make a solemn protestation of her innocence. Her son, afterwards George the Second, was fully convinced of it; once, it is said, he made a romantic attempt to see her, crossing the river opposite the castle on horseback, but was pre XIV. 1727. vented by Baron Bulow, to whose care she was CHAP. committed. He secretly kept her picture, and had determined, in the event of her surviving his accession, to have restored her to liberty, and acknowledged her as Queen-Dowager. If we may trust some rumours whispered at the time in Germany, the death of this ill-fated Princess hastened that of George. It is said that in her last illness she had delivered to a faithful attendant a letter to her husband, upon promise that it should be given into his own hands. It contained a protestation of her innocence, a reproach for his hard usage, and a citation or summons to appear within a year and a day at the Divine tribunal, and there to answer for the long and many injuries she had received from him. As this letter could not with safety to the bearer be delivered in England, it was given to the King in his coach, on his entering Germany. He opened it immediately, and, it is added, was so struck with the unexpected contents and fatal citation, as to fall at once into the convulsion of which he died.* Another rumour, not incompatible with the former, states, that Sophia having made a will, bequeathing her personal property to her son, the document was taken to her husband in England, and by him destroyed. Such a story, however, * See Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 352. The letter containing this account was shown him in the same year by Count Welling, Governor of Luxemburg. But some people believed the whole to be a fabrication. |