C'en est donc fait de notre bonheur! il s'est enfui pour toujours. Nous n'avons pas dû être heureux. Nous n'avons pas dû le rendre les autres. Il ne nous reste aucun espoir. Nous rentrons dans le néant dont nous voulions sortir! Mais que ce Fantome de bonheur envolé ne nous emporte pas votre amitié et attachement. Comptez jusqu'à la fin des mes forces, sur le mien. Mes amis vous assurent la même chose. Nous vous devons trop pour devenir ingrat. Tout ce qui dépendra de nous, pour vous le temoigner, ne sera jamais négligé. Parlez et disposez de ce qu'il y a en notre pouvoir. Thus terminated, seemingly at the point of fruition, an enterprise in which some of the first nobility of Denmark, Norway, and Holstein, were engaged, and to which George III. had given his consent.[55] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 52: George III., it must be borne in mind, considered his public duties as superior to private feelings. In 1775, he, though overwhelmed with grief at his sister's death, obtained from Christian VII. a decree that the Danes were to give no sort of assistance to the American rebels.] [Footnote 53: The admirers of cryptography will find a specimen of the baron's letters in the Appendix. To the same dreary limbo I have also consigned my grandfather's letters to his father relating to this affair, solely through a fear that I might be charged with giving him undue prominence in a work purporting to be the life of Caroline Matilda.] [Footnote 54: Seckendorf.] [Footnote 55: Baron von Bülow and his friends nobly kept their word, and constantly urged George III., through Lichtenstein, to reward my grandfather for his great exertions on behalf of Caroline Matilda. It was not, however, till 1781, or when Mr. Wraxall had a seat in the House of Commons, and a useful vote, that Lord North brought up the subject. My grandfather then received 1,000 guineas for his services, and the promise of a seat at the Board of Green Cloth. The promise was not kept; for what reason he shall tell us himself:-- "In November, 1783, on the meeting of Parliament, the memorable East India Bill was introduced by Mr. Fox. Upon the first division that took place on the bill, I quitted Lord North, notwithstanding the motives I had to adhere to him; rather choosing to abandon my expectations, however near their accomplishment, than give my support to a measure which I considered to be pregnant with mischief to the country and constitution. I joined Mr. Pitt in opposition, and was one of the one hundred and twenty members who formed the minority on that evening against a majority of two hundred and twenty-nine in favour of the bill."] CHAPTER VIII. DEATH OF CAROLINE MATILDA.