s, must have tended
to alarm and distress an invalid. It is not the frank brutality of
George's words which surprises us; it is rather the sort of cross-light
they throw on what was after all a tender part of his coarse and
selfish nature. Every reader of the history and the memoirs of that
reign must be prepared to understand and to appreciate the absolute
sincerity of the King's words; the settled belief that the Queen could
not possibly have any objection to his taking to himself as many
mistresses as he pleased. One is a little surprised at the uncouth
sentimentality of the thought that nevertheless it might be a
disrespect to her memory if he were to take another wife. What a light
all this lets in upon the man, and the Court, and the time! As regards
indiscriminate amours and connections, poor, stupid, besotted George
was simply on a level with the lower animals. Charles the Second,
Louis the Fourteenth, Louis the Fifteenth even--these at their worst of
times were gentlemen. It was only at the Hanoverian Court of England
that such an interchange of appeal and reassurance could take place as
that which was murmured and blubbered over the death-bed of Queen
Caroline. "Horror," says one of the great Elizabethan poets, "waits on
the death-beds of princes." Horror in the truest sense waited on the
death-bed of that poor, patient, faithful, unscrupulous, unselfish
Queen.

The Queen kept rallying and sinking, and rallying again; and the King's
moods went up and down with each passing change in his wife's
condition. Now she sank, and he buried his face in the bedclothes and
cried; now she recovered a little, and he rated at her and made rough
jokes at her. At one moment he appeared to be all {118} tenderness to
her, at another moment he went on as if the whole illness were a mere
sham to worry him, and she might get up and be well if she would only
act like a sensible woman. The Prince of Wales made an attempt to see
the Queen. The King spoke of him as a puppy and a scoundrel; jeered at
his impudent, affected airs of duty and affection, declared that
neither he nor the Queen was in a condition to see him act his false,
whining, cringing tricks now, and sent him orders to get out of the
place at once. His Majesty continued all through the dying scenes to
rave against the Prince of Wales, and call him rascal, knave, puppy,
and scoundrel. The Queen herself, although she did not use language
quite as strong, y