George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820; Great Britain -- History -- George III, 1760-1820
angry with any of his keepers, stamp his foot and say he would send them
down into hell."[327]
[327] F. W. Wynn: _Diaries of a Lady of Quality_.
It was during the lucid interval to which reference has just been made
that Sir Henry Halford was deputed to broach an awkward subject to the
King. George had known of the death of Princess Amelia, and every day
his attendants dreaded lest he should ask questions as to her property
and her will. There had been a close intimacy between the Princess and
General Fitzroy--there was the rumour of a secret marriage--and the
trouble was that she had left everything to him. The Queen was afraid to
mention this to the King, and Perceval and the Lord Chancellor
successively undertook the disclosure and shrunk from it, imposing it
upon Sir Henry. "Never," said the latter subsequently, "could I forget
the feelings with which, having requested some private conversation with
the King, after the other physicians were gone, I was called into a
window with the light falling so full on my countenance that even the
poor nearly blind King could see it. I asked whether it would be
agreeable to him to hear now how Princess Amelia had disposed of her
little property. "Certainly, certainly, I want to know," with great
eagerness. I reminded him at the beginning of his illness he had
appointed Fitzroy to ride with her at Weymouth; how it was natural and
proper she should leave him some token for these services; that,
excepting jewels, she had nothing to leave, and had bequeathed them all
to him; that the Prince of Wales, thinking jewels a very inappropriate
bequest for a man, had given Fitzroy a pecuniary compensation for them
(his family, by the bye, always said it was very inadequate) and had
distributed slight tokens to all the attendants and friends of the
Princess, giving the bulk of the jewels to Princess Mary, her most
constant and kindest of nurses. Upon this the poor King exclaimed,
"Quite right, just like the Prince of Wales," and no more was
said."[328]
[328] F. W. Wynn: _Diaries of a Lady of Quality_.
It was in the summer of 1814 that the Queen entered the King's apartment
during one of these lucid intervals, and found him singing a hymn and
accompanying himself on the harpsichord. When he had concluded, he knelt
down and prayed aloud for his consort, for his family, for the nation,
and, lastly, for himself, that it might please God to avert his heavy
calamity, or, if not, give him resignation under it. Then his emotions
overpowered him, he burst into tears, and his reason fled. He was never
again sane.[329]
[329] _Georgiana._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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