consequence was that he soon became deeply involved in debt,
so deeply that, in 1787, a member of Fox's party gave notice of his
intention to move that the Parliament should pay his debts and increase
his income. Pitt, without specifying his reasons, avowed that he should
feel it his duty to oppose any grant of such a character; but another
member of Parliament, Mr. Rolle, one of the members for Devonshire,
being trammelled by no such feeling of responsibility, expressed a
similar resolution in language which contained an allusion perfectly
understood on both sides of the House. He said that "the question thus
proposed to be brought forward went immediately to affect our
constitution in Church and State." And every one knew that he was
referring to a report which had recently become general, that the Prince
was married to a Roman Catholic lady of the name of Fitzherbert. No
direct notice was taken of this allusion at the moment, Fox himself, who
had the chief share of the Prince's confidence, being accidentally
absent; but a day or two afterward he referred to Rolle's speech with
great indignation, declaring that it referred to a "low, malicious
calumny" which had no foundation whatever, and "was only fit to impose
on the lowest order of persons." Being pressed as to the precise force
of his assertion, and being asked whether it meant more than that under
the existing laws, such as the Royal Marriage Act, there had been no
marriage, because there could have been no _legal_ marriage, he declared
that he meant no such evasion, but that no marriage ceremony, legal or
illegal, had ever taken place; and farther, that in saying this he was
speaking on the direct authority of the Prince himself. No more
degrading act stains the annals of British royalty. For the fact was
true--the very next evening Fox learned the deceit which the Prince had
practised on him from a gentleman who had been one of the witnesses to
the marriage, which had been solemnized by a Protestant clergyman
fifteen months before.[114] And his indignation was such that for some
time afterward he abstained from all interference in the Prince's
affairs; while the language held by the Prince's other confidant, Mr.
Sheridan, was so evasive as to betray a consciousness that whatever had
occurred would not bear the light of day; so that there were very few to
whom the truth or falsehood of the report was a subject of interest who
felt any uncertainty on the subject.