Hervey was the Queen’s devoted companion, and bearer of tittle tattle. She did not scruple to even allow him to sit by her bed when she was ill and amuse her with gossip, and to this arrangement the King seems to have offered no objection, though he was devoted to Caroline. The Prince of Wales, however, expressed himself strongly on the subject of Hervey’s association with his mother and sisters. The Queen appears to have selected a strange companion. The following is a description of his appearance and character: “He was considered an exquisite beau and wit, and showed himself in after life to be possessed of considerable ability both as writer and orator.” (He was the author of the well-known “Memoirs of the Reign of George the Second”). “He was an accomplished courtier, and possessed some of the worst vices of courtiers; he was double-faced, untrustworthy, and ungrateful. He had a frivolous and effeminate character; he was full of petty spite and meannesses, and given to painting his face and other abominations, which earned for him the nickname of ‘Lord Fanny.’” He is described by some of the poets of the time as being possessed of great personal beauty; the Duchess of Marlborough was of an opposite opinion: “He has certainly parts and wit,” she writes, “but is the most wretched profligate man that ever was born, besides ridiculous; a painted face and not a tooth in his head.”[27] He appears, however, to have been a favourite with the fair sex, even to marrying the beautiful Mary Lepel, maid-of-honour to the Queen when Princess of Wales. [Illustration: _National Portrait Gallery._ _Emery Walker._ LORD HERVEY.] Poor Mary! Lord Hervey had been a married man over ten years when the first rumours of the Vane scandal began to permeate St. James’s about the end of 1731. It was then that the estrangement between the Prince of Wales and Lord Hervey began, and the reason for it is not far to seek. Lord Hervey had been talking of Miss Vane, and his remarks had reached the ears of Frederick. Horace Walpole gives the key to the whole matter in his “Reminiscences”; he states that the Prince of Wales, Lord Hervey and the 1st Lord Harrington _each_ came to his brother, Sir Robert, and confided the fact of being the father of Miss Vane’s child! As far as the Prince of Wales was concerned, it is to be understood; he had committed a grave fault, he had incurred a grave responsibility, he had no wish to shirk it, although as we know he was kept very short of money by his father. He knew that as a man he was bound to see this poor girl through her trouble at any cost, and he did it. But how about the cur Hervey with the painted face, and his finicking woman’s tittle-tattle? How about Lord Harrington, who was little better?