The Prince made his way by degrees to her corner, stopping to chat on the way, believing that by so doing he disguised his intention of singling out Mary.

When he reached the table at which she sat he beamed at the three of them.

"It vos von beautiful song," he said.

He sat down and took a purse from his pocket which he put on the table. The three stared at it in surprise. He emptied it of its guineas and began to count them.

"It seems I much money haf," he said with a smile, and gathering up the money put it back in the purse, jingling it while he smiled at Mary.

Mary however was looking beyond him as though she was quite unaware of what he was doing.

Molly Lepel had begun to sing at the Princess's request; there was silence at the table while the Prince continued to look expectantly at Mary; and Mary stared stonily ahead.

The Prince came to the Princess's apartments where she was resting on her bed. He waved away her women and going to the bed kissed her.

"It is goot that you rest," he said. "And how are you, my tear?"

"Veil, but shall be glad when the child comes. It is long waiting."

"You always have the difficult time. You are certain you have the right time? You were wrong before, remember."

"I'm sure of it. Cowper and Clayton have been bothering me. And Mrs. Howard too."

The Prince looked shocked at the mention of Henrietta.

"Oh, they serve me veil. They think I should have the doctor instead of the midvife."

"Instead of the midvife! A man! You could not, Caroline."

"No, I could not. They say that in France royal ladies have accoucheurs instead of midvives. They say they have the skill ... and it is safer. But I shall have the midvife. I vould not vish for Sir David Hamilton to attend me."

"I should not vish either."

"I must scold these ladies."

"They do it for your good, but scold."

"I feel veil .. .very veil. And I vish to speak to you about the Prime Minister."

"Tell me."

"He vishes an audience. I believe he vould rather serve you than the King."

The Prince's eyes gleamed with pleasure.

"Of course you vill say ve must be careful," she said warn-ingly.

"Oh, ve must be careful."

"If the King hears that the Prime Minister talks business vith you he vill angry be. He vill come back from Hanover ... toutc dc suite.''

The Prince nodded; but there was triumph in his eyes.

"The weeks at Hampton have been so vunderful"

The Prince nodded.

"It has done me so much goot to see you. You have shown them what a King you vill be."

"And you a Queen."

She put her hands on her stomach. "Oh, I must bear the children.... That is for the vomen."

"But I vould always talk to you, Caroline. There is no von else I vould talk to as I do to you."

"You are so goot to me. Ve shall be careful with Townsend. Should ve send for him now? I vill dress and we can receive him in the Queen's gallery. Vould you give your consent to this?"

The Prince nodded eagerly.

"I believe the King is trying to make England declare war. Do you think that will be goot for England? Goot for Hanover yes, but vill it be goot for England? The people do not vant it. Do you think it would be goot for England to declare var vhile you are the guardian of the realm?"

"It would be bad. I vould not allow it."

"I thought you vould not. I vill summon my women and join you in the Queen's gallery. I vill have vord sent to Towns-end that he is to come there."

Caroline, in a long robe which did its best to disguise her advanced state of pregnancy, walked up and down the gallery between the Prince and the Prime Minister.

Townsend was saying: "The English will never willingly go to war for the sake of Hanover."

"They must never do so," replied the Prince.

"I am glad of Your Highness's support," replied Townsend, "for the Cabinet are of your opinion. It was against my advice that we sent a squadron to the Baltic. This was said to protect our trade but our trade was in no real need of protection. It was meant to protect Bremen and Verden ... for the sake of Hanover."

"Hanover must fight her own battles," said the Prince.

"The King does not think so."

"The King is von fool," retorted the Prince.

Both Caroline and the Prime Minister lowered their eyes.

"I repeat... von fool," went on George Augustus. "He must be to prefer Hanover to England. But then he is not English ... as I am..."

"As ve both are," added the Princess.

The Prince smiled across at her. "Yes, all things English ve love."

"There are new propositions from Hanover," said Towns-end. "I do not agree with them and I should like to know that I have Your Highness's support in refusing them."

"You have my support if it is for England's goot. I vould never put Hanover before England."

"Veil spoken," murmured Caroline; and again he smiled at her.

"Denmark offers Bremen and Verden to Hanover on the condition that England declares war on Sweden and pays to Denmark £150,000."

"And vat goot vill this bring to Englandt?" asked the Prince excitedly.

"No good to England, but Hanover will get Bremen and Verden, of course."

"And Englandt would be at var with Sveden and Russia," added Caroline quietly.

"It shall not be!" cried the Prince clenching his fist, while the veins at his temples became swollen.

"I am delighted to have Your Highness's support in this as I intend to place Stanhope's proposals before the Cabinet. I can assure you they will be rejected ... particularly in view of the fact that we have Your Highness's support."

The Prince was delighted. When the Prime Minister consulted him he was truly playing the King.

The golden September days were passing. Each day Caroline wondered whether there would be news of the King's return. But he stayed on in Hanover and left them free to enjoy the blessing of his absence.

To the Prince's great joy, Townsend, with whom he was now on excellent terms, suggested that he make a tour of the countryside. He had seen little of England, except during his journey from the coast to London on his arrival and the English liked to see their sovereigns.

Townsend was already talking to him as though he were the King and he was thinking of himself as such.

The Prince immediately began making his preparations.

"There is but von thing that grieves me," he said. "You, my tear, vill not come vith me."

"You vill manage very veil on your own," Caroline told him.

"It vould have been happier for me if I could have had my tear vife beside me."

"I shall be thinking of you ... all the time. And you see I am in no condition to come vith you."

"Take care of yourself. I vill give Mrs. Howard very special instructions."

"You need not. She is the best of vomen."

The Prince smiled at her gratefully. It seemed there was nothing to spoil his pleasure.

And what joy it was to travel through the countryside of Hampshire, Sussex and Kent where the people lined the roads to cheer him as he rode by and he told himself and his attendants that he would never tire of smiling for the English people.

To signal his approach bonfires were lighted all along his route and girls with flowers and leaves came out to dance in his path. At Portsmouth he was entertained at military as well as naval reviews. He went aboard the finest of the ships and guns were fired in his honour.

His eyes shining with sentiment, he told those who welcomed him that he had never been so happy in his life. He loved England; he loved the English people; he was English; he would not have it otherwise. Every drop of blood in his veins was English; he had inherited it through his grandmother.

He would never willingly leave England; the best and lovingest people in the world were the English.

He loved the English and the English loved him.

He was different from his dour old father, said the people; let that old fellow stay in Germany with his Maypole and Elephant, let him stuff himself with sausages and sauerkraut. His son was quite different. He was English, although he spoke with an atrocious German accent. He was one of them because he was determined to be.

So the bonfires were lighted; and the people sang and danced; and the theme of the day was "God Bless the Prince of Wales".

October was well advanced by the time he returned in triumph to Hampton. He found Caroline delighted to see him, eager to hear of his triumphs; but although she was more heavily pregnant than ever, there was no sign that her confinement was imminent.

Bothmer sat in his apartments writing to the King, to Bernstorff and to Robethon.

"The Prince," he wrote, "has become the King. The Prime Minister confers with him. Townsend has in fact become his man. His Highness has just returned to Hampton from a royal progress through Hampshire, Kent and Sussex. He is treated as the ruler of the realm."

Caroline was delighted and yet apprehensive. The more popular the Prince became the more determined the King would be to suppress him. Their only hope to go on living this delightful existence was for the King to discover that he loved Hanover so much he would stay there.

She believed there might be a faint possibility that he would. She prayed that it might come true. But while his father lived George Augustus could not be King. Still, to live as pleasantly as they had been living for this wonderful summer would be very delightful while they waited.

Yet as the days grew shorter her apprehension grew. There were no longer charming afternoons in the pavilion. The wind was too chilly. Walks had to be taken early in the afternoon if she was to be back in her apartments by dusk. It was not so exciting playing cards by candle-light as in the fresh air.

It cannot go on, of course, she thought sighing.

News came from Hanover which saddened her.

Leibniz had approached the King and begged leave to come to England and this had been curtly refused. Poor Leibniz! He had been unpopular enough in the past but he was more so now. Then he had merely been disliked as a man of intellect and a friend of the Princess's, when the King had considered her to be an unimportant woman whose only function was to bear children. Now he would know that she was not so stupid. Bothmer would have reported how Townsend had first approached her; and she would have her full share of the King's animosity.

Leibniz had not been wise to approach the King at such a time.

"The King has been so incensed by what was happening at home," she read, "that he could not endure to look on Leibniz who has always been a supporter of the Princess of Wales. He turned his back on him and in consequence of this action Leibniz had no alternative but to leave court."

Poor lonely old Leibniz, whose only fault was that he was loyal to his old pupil and that he was a man of wit and understanding! So he had gone to his home in Hanover and lived there. He had left Court for ever and he despaired of ever coming to England.

Caroline pictured him, thinking of all those talks he had had with the Electress Sophia when she had embued him with her love of a country neither of them had ever seen.

He was heartbroken—deprived of his work, deprived of his friends, despised because he had a good brain and liked to use it.

Could a man die of a broken heart? Perhaps, thought Caroline, for Leibniz had died in Leibnizhaus, his house in Han-ver, and had been buried quietly, for the King had had no wish that he should be remembered.

"He was buried," ran the letter, "more like a robber than an ornament to his country."

Dear Leibniz who had tutored her, who had reproved her, and who had loved her!

It was another link with the old life broken; and at the same time it was an evil augury for the future.

George was harsh to those he believed did not serve him well. So poor Leibniz had suffered.

How much more harsh he would be to those who had deliberately flouted him—his own son and daughter-in-law I What would happen when he returned? That was what Caroline wondered as she sat awaiting the first signs of her child's arrival on those rapidly shortening days.

The crimson-decked barge made its way slowly up the river. On the banks the people cheered while the Prince, his hand on his heart, bowed and smiled, and the Princess, who looked as though she might give birth at any moment, sat back, with smiles as gracious as those of the Prince. The young Princesses, Anne, Amelia and Caroline, were with their mother and there was a special cheer for them; and on the elaborately decorated barge it was possible to catch a glimpse of those rival beauties.