ion to drink was given went
to Sir Robert Walpole to tell him what had happened. Sir Robert
thanked the sergeant and rewarded him, but enjoined him to leave out of
the affidavit he would have to make any allusion to the English money
and the Hanoverian mistress. There was quite enough in the mere
invitation to drink the disloyal toast, Sir Robert said, to secure the
offender's punishment; but the Prime-minister was decidedly of opinion
that the less said just then in public about the spending of English
money and the endowment of Hanoverian women, the better for peace and
quietness.

[Sidenote: 1737--The Prince of Wales]

The Queen and Sir Robert and Lord Hervey were in constant consultation.
They would not show in public the fear which all alike entertained.
The Queen went to chapel, and passed her evenings with her circle just
as usual; but she was in the uttermost alarm and the deepest distress.
Any hour might bring the news that the King was drowned; and who could
tell what might not happen in England then? Of course in the natural
order of things the Prince of Wales would succeed to the throne; and
what would become of the Queen and Walpole and Hervey then? Hervey,
indeed, tried to reassure the Queen, and to persuade her that her son
would acknowledge her influence and be led by it; but Caroline could
not be prevailed upon to indulge in such a hope even for {71} a moment.
To add to her troubles, her daughter, the Princess of Orange, was lying
in a most dangerous condition at the Hague--her confinement had taken
place; she had suffered terribly; and, to save her life, it had been
found necessary to sacrifice the unborn child, a daughter. Every hour
that passed without bringing news of the King seemed to increase the
chance of the news when it came proving the worst. Such was the moment
when the Prince of Wales made himself conspicuous by several bids for
popularity. He gave a dinner to the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the
City of London on the occasion of their presenting him with the freedom
of the city. The Queen, who, for all her philosophical scepticism and
her emancipated mind, had many lingering superstitions in her, saw an
evil omen in the fact that the only two Princes of Wales who before
Frederick had been presented with the freedom of the city were Charles
the First and James the Second. The prince was reported to the Queen
to have made several speeches at the dinner which were certain to
ingratia