“My man, John Cooper, saw the Prince that night let into the Park through St. James’s Mews alone, and the next morning a Grenadier told him the Prince was robbed last night of his watch and twenty-two guineas, and a gold medal, by a woman who had run away from him. The Prince bid the Grenadier run after her, and take the watch from her, which, with the seals were the only things he valued; the money she was welcome to, he said, and he ordered him when he had got the watch to let the woman go. But the Grenadier could not find her, so I suppose in her haste she dropped it at the end of the Mall, or laid it down there for fear of being discovered by the watch and seals, if they should be advertised.”[24] FOOTNOTES: [17] A French refugee, named Roussie, who was given an Irish peerage. [18] One of the South Sea Bubble Schemes. [19] Claremont was one of the Duke of Newcastle’s seats. [20] These two were much attached to one another. The Duke was a grandson of Charles II., but hardly an Adonis, as he weighed 20 stone. [21] The Right Hon. Henry Pelham, son of Lord Pelham, and brother of Thomas Pelham, Duke of Newcastle, whose title had been revived in his favour by George the First. [22] He never was made Secretary to the Queen. This was probably one of Her Majesty’s jokes. [23] The double marriage scheme which had come up again for a little time. [24] The Hon. Peter Wentworth to Lord Strafford, London, 1734. CHAPTER VIII. THE PRINCE’S EMBARRASSMENTS. The Prince of Wales having for the few years immediately succeeding his coming to England occupied his exalted position with a totally inadequate income had, as might reasonably have been expected, become exceedingly involved in debt. Though possessing no separate establishment of his own (except as will be seen later an illicit one), yet he was placed in a position of much difficulty and temptation. He appears to have received from his father a small and uncertain allowance, and when pressed by his creditors was absolutely refused assistance by the King. The intervention of the Queen in favour of Frederick at this period seems to have been quite useless, and from that time forth grew up that sad state of affairs which eventually compassed the total estrangement of the Prince from his father and mother. It has been said that this treatment would have tried the best of sons, but Frederick’s early training and environment had not been of a nature to breed many of the filial virtues in him. It is quite certain that he felt his humiliating position most acutely, and that the slights and snubs he was subjected to by his father rankled considerably. Not the least of these was the fact that his mother was constituted Regent during the absences of his father in Hanover. It is not surprising, therefore, that he began to look for at least friendship and support in another direction and found it among the opponents of his father’s Government.