Never had the King been so unpopular. This was the time to strike; and Fox believed he was ready.

He knew, of course, why Portland and the others were holding back. They were unsure whether or not the Prince was married. If it came out that he was—and since his financial affairs would be under discussion it might well do so—then the Prince's popularity would be immediately lost. At the moment the affair was wrapped in mystery and the people loved a mystery. The papers were full of the love affair between Maria and the Prince. But what if it were admitted that the Prince of Wales had in fact married a lady, twice widowed, six years his senior ... well, that might be accepted. But she was a Catholic; and ever since the Smithfield fires the people of England had determined never to have a Catholic on the throne. James II had lost his crown because of this; the Hanoverian succession had come into force because of it; the recent Gordon riots showed without a doubt that the feeling was as strong as ever.

It was clear to Fox that the reason the Whigs as a party would not support the Prince was because of the fear that he had married Mrs. Fitzherbert and that this would be disclosed; and if it were so, and he was associated with the Party, then the Party would suffer great harm and perhaps for years to come be linked with the Catholic cause.

The marriage was not mentioned because the Prince was present at most of the discussions and it was considered too delicate a matter and one of which he had no wish to talk. Everyone who knew him well knew also that he greatly disliked discussing anything which was unpleasant to him.

Fox, however, was not disturbed. He believed he knew what had happened; and he felt confident.

If the Prince would only state openly to his friends that there had been no ceremony, then there would have been no difficulty in persuading them to support him; but this he would not do.

Fox believed he understood. The Prince was romantic; he was deeply in love with Maria Fitzherbert. If people believed that there had been a ceremony of marriage, let them go on believing it. It was doubtless what Maria wished. She preferred people to believe that she had gone through a ceremony of marriage; and the Prince wished to please her.

It all seemed clear enough to Fox.

The Duke of Portland, however, was adamant. He declared that he—as head of the Whigs—could not allow the Party to bring up the matter of the Prince's debts.

The Prince was angry and cut Portland when next they met. Portland shrugged his shoulders. He was sorry to displease the Prince but he had the Party to think of.

"I am determined," the Prince told Fox, "to have the matter brought up in Parliament. Quite clearly I cannot continue in this state."

Fox said: "Certainly it shall be brought up. Never fear, we shall do without Portland. Sherry and I are worth the rest of the Party put together. We'll get an independent member to bring up the subject. I know the man: Alderman Newnham. As a rich city merchant he carries weight. I think he's our man."

Within a few days Fox was able to report to the Prince that he was indeed the man.

Alderman Newnham would bring up the matter of the Princes debts in the House of Commons during the next sitting.

On April 20th Alderman Newnham addressed Mr. Pitt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, which office he held in addition to that of Prime Minister.

"Is it the design of His Majesty's ministers to bring forward any proposition to rescue the Prince of Wales from his present very embarrassed condition? His Royal Highness's conduct during these difficulties has reflected greater honour and glory on his character than the most splendid diadem in Europe, yet it must be very disagreeable to his Royal Highness to be deprived of those comforts and enjoyments which so properly belong to his rank."

Mr. Pitt rose and replied: "It is not my duty to bring forward a subject of such nature as that suggested by the honourable gentleman except at the command of His Majesty. I have not been honoured by such a command."

Mr. Pitt sat down and Alderman Newnham was immediately on his feet to announce that he would bring up the matter again on the 4th May.

Fox was amused. "We have begun," he told Lizzie. "Pitt has been taken by surprise. He did not believe the Prince would allow the matter to be brought up."

"Why not? He knows the Prince cannot continue as he is."

"This is really a question of Is the Prince married or is he not? Pitt thinks His Highness daren't risk an enquiry into his affairs."

"But surely His Highness does not wish for such an enquiry?"

"His Highness wishes his debts to be paid—and I intend to see that they are."

Pitt sprang a surprise on the House by referring to the matter before Alderman Newnham brought it up again. He chose an opportunity when the House was full to ask whether the honourable magistrate, Alderman Newnham, intended to persevere with the motion and what scope and tendency it would take.

Newnham replied that it was simply to rescue the Prince of Wales from his present embarrassing position.

Pitt's reply was threatening.

"The principal delicacy of the question," he remarked, "will lie in the necessity for enquiring into the causes of the circumstances."

Fox knew what that meant.

Ever since Maria's return from the Continent there had been cartoons and paragraphs about her and the Prince in the papers; but just at this time, when the question of the Prince's debts was about to be brought up in the House, John Home Tooke, a politician who also enjoyed writing pamphlets and was renowned for his eccentricities, produced one of his papers entitled The Reported Marriage of the Prince of Wales. His motive seemed to be to expose the iniquities of the Marriage Act and to pour ridicule upon it, for since as he believed the Prince had married in spite of it, what use was it? He ended by writing:

"It is not from debates in either Houses of Parliament that the public will receive any solid information on a point of so much importance to the nation, to the Sovereign on the throne, to his royal successor and to a most amiable and justly valued female character whom I conclude to be in all respects both legally, really, worthily and happily for this country, Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Wales."

This pamphlet caused a stir throughout London and the Court. Is he or isn't he? everyone was asking. Bets were taken on. Everything else now seemed to have taken second place to the all important questions: Is the Prince married? Can the Prince be married? What about the Royal Marriage Act? Is the marriage legal? But first of all: Did an actual ceremony take place?

Fox was alert.

He said to Sheridan, "It seems that one of us must always be in the House in case Pitt should bring up the matter at any moment. You know what this is going to mean. It's not going to be a question of the Prince's debts—that is just the cover. It's going to be Is he married or not?"

"Does His Highness grasp this fact, do you think?"

"He grasps it. But he has to have his debts settled. This is the price Pitt is asking. Damned clever. He's not going to let us show the King for the mean old devil he is. He's going to try and show up the Prince and possibly attempt to have him cut out of the succession. We must be on our guard. You and I are the only defenders. You can be sure that Portland won't allow the Party to be involved."

Nevertheless Fox was taken off his guard. Perhaps he had underestimated the effect Home Tooke's pamphlet would have. There was one section of the House which was very much opposed to any encroachment on the Established Church of England; these were the country squires who were determined that they would never have a Catholic on the throne—nor should any monarch have a Catholic consort. This group had been very influential in driving James II from England and establishing William of Orange on the throne; and if the Prince of Wales had indeed married a Catholic they saw—not the same danger, of course, which had arisen in 1688, but what could be the beginning of a similar situation. Wives influenced husbands; they were anxious that the heir to the throne should be solidly Protestant, and if he had been so foolish as to marry a Catholic wife—even morganatically, they wanted to know it.

So they met and appointed as their spokesman John Rolle, a squire from Devonshire. Rolle was a blunt and honest man; his accent betrayed his Devon origin and he was slow of speech but forthright; no one had ever been able to bribe John Rolle; he was no respector of persons and he did not care if his frank speaking offended royalty. As a sturdy noncomformist he was not prepared to support any Catholic influence on the throne; and if the Prince of Wales had married a Catholic he was determined to know it.

On the 27th April, Alderman Newnham rose, as had been arranged, and suggested that an address be made to His Majesty the King, begging him to consider the present embarrassed financial position of the Prince of Wales and to grant him such relief as he should think fit, that the House might make good whatever sum was considered necessary to restore the Prince to a reasonable state.

Pitt was about to reply to this when John Rolle forestalled him.

His words, uttered in that burred accent, sent a shock through the House, for it was realized that from the moment the Devonshire squire had spoken there could be no more prevarication.

If ever there was a question which called particularly upon the attention of that class of persons, the country gentleman, it would be the question which the honourable Alderman had declared his determination to agitate, said Rolle, because it was a question which went immediately to affect our Constitution in Church and State. Whenever it was brought forward he would rise the moment the honourable Alderman sat down and move the previous question, being convinced that it ought not to be discussed.

Sheridan was disturbed. The moment was at hand. And where was Fox? On this most significant occasion Fox was not in the House. The burden therefore must fall on Sheridan.

What could he do? He must play for time. It was Fox who must deal with this. On the impulse of the moment it seemed there was only one tiling he could do and that was to pretend not to understand Rolle's meaning.

He jumped to his feet. He failed to sec, he said, what the matter had to do with Church and State. The motion had been brought, he believed, merely to free the Prince from financial embarrassments.

But Rolle was not the man to be so easily set aside. He was immediately on his feet. If the motion were introduced, he said, he would do his duty.

The wily Pitt was immediately aware of Sheridan's dismay and took his advantage.

He rose to his feet. "I am much concerned," he said, "that by the perseverance of the Honourable Member I shall be driven, though with infinite reluctance, to the disclosure of circumstances which I should otherwise think it my duty to conceal." The atmosphere of the House had become tense. "Whenever the motion should be agitated I am ready to avow my determined and fixed resolution to give it my absolute negative."

Sheridan was quickly aware of Pitt's indiscretion. He had made an announcement to the effect that he would refuse something which had not had the privilege of debate. This was unparliamentary; and uneasy as he was, Sheridan was politician enough to be obliged to discountenance his opponent by making him aware of his indiscretion.

He must attempt to hide his concern in his attack on Pitt. "Some honourable gentlemen have thought proper to express their anxious wishes that the business should be deferred" he pointed out, "but Mr. Pitt has erected an insuperable barrier to such a step. It would seem to the country, to all Europe, that the Prince had yielded to terror what he had denied to argument. What could the world think of such conduct, but that he has fled from the enquiry and dare not face his accusers? But if such was the design of these threats, I believe they will find the author of them has as much mistaken the feelings as the conduct of the Prince."

There was excitement throughout the House.

Sheridan sought to hide his dismay, but he knew that the question of the Prince's marriage would now most certainly be brought forward.

He went with all speed to Carlton House and there gave the Prince a detailed account of what had happened in the House.

"There can be no hope now," said Sheridan, "that the question will not be brought up in the House. We have to have an answer."