“No,” Walpole corrected, “I mean the Hanover woman. You are right to imagine that he does not go so deep to his lying fool here. He will give her a couple of the tickets and think her generously used.” By which it seems that the King’s German women had by far the better knack of getting money out of him than the English favourites. But Walpole’s sagacity had, just previous to this, at the end of the Parliamentary Session, brought the question of the Prince of Wales’s income adroitly into something of a settlement. He had with the greatest difficulty induced the King and Queen to agree to a settlement of the £50,000 a year mentioned in the King’s celebrated message to the Prince, and the difficulty of the other £50,000 a year claimed by Frederick was got over by Parliament being persuaded to settle an extra large jointure on the Princess of Wales, £50,000 a year in fact. So the parsimonious little King got out of paying it after all. FOOTNOTES: [43] She was thirty-seven at this time, having been born in 1700. CHAPTER XVIII. A MOST EXTRAORDINARY EVENT. We now approach some of the most extraordinary events of the Prince’s life, those circumstances surrounding the birth of his first child. There had been a great deal of speculation, which was very natural under the circumstances, as to the probability of the Princess of Wales bearing a child, and the Queen and the Princess Caroline are said to have formed an opinion, for reasons unknown, that she never would. In all probability the wish in this case was father to the thought, for the coming of a lineal heir to the crown through the Prince of Wales, was an event not desired by the King or Queen, who it was well known desired the crown for the Duke of Cumberland, now a handsome boy of sixteen. It was therefore no doubt owing to this reason that neither the Prince or Princess of Wales appeared to be in any hurry to publicly announce this event. As a matter of fact the first formal intimation of it was conveyed in the following letter from the Prince to his royal mother, sent by Lord North, his Lord of the Bedchamber then in waiting. De Kew ce 5 de juillet. Madame, Le Dr. Hollings et Mrs. Cannons vient de me dire qu’il n’y a plus à douter de la grossesse de la Princesse d’abord que j’ai eu leur autorité, je n’ai pas voulu manquer d’en faire part à votre Majesté, et de la supplier d’en informer le Roi en même tems. Je suis avec tout le respect possible, Madame, De Votre Majesté Le très humble et très obeissant fils et serviteur FREDERICK.