Perdita's Prince: (Georgian Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and was clearly of a very different intellectual calibre from his father.
    One man who was watching him with the greatest interest was Charles James Fox. Fox was perhaps one of the most brilliant men in politics and it was galling to him to see the King and Lord North throwing away the American colonies through policies which, it seemed obvious to Fox, were misguided and foolish.
    ‘The King,’ Fox had said, ‘lowers his head like a cow and goes on chewing the cud, regurgitating over and over again: “They’ll come to their senses.” If only he would come to his.’
    Fox was thirty years old – leader of the Whigs, distrusted by the King – and not only for his political opinions. Fox knew the story of Sarah Lennox. He could remember the consternation in the family when the King’s marriage to Charlotte was announced. His mother had been Sarah Lennox’s sister and the whole family had naturally hoped the King would marry Sarah. That it was largely Sarah’s own fault that he had not did not relieve the family anguish. Sarah was a foolish girl – her conduct now was proving that; but she could have been Queen of England with a little careful manoeuvring, for the Foxes would have been a match for the Dowager Princess of Wales and Lord Bute at any time. But Sarah had lost her chance and George had married Charlotte. And this was something for which George could not forgive the Foxes. Every time he set eyes on Sarah’s nephew he thought of Sarah, and quite clearly was resentful because he had had to take the plain dull Charlotte instead.
    ‘Why he should dislike me,’ Charles James told his friends, ‘would be inconceivable but for the fact that to do so is in accordance with accepted human behaviour. I, with my parents and the rest of the family, would have been delighted to see Sarah as Queen.’
    But the King was a simple man and not accustomed to delving into the innermost recesses of his mind to understand his own motives. He merely said: ‘I can’t abide that fellow Fox.’ And he never asked himself if his dislike had anything to do with the loss of Sarah.
    Charles James knew that he would never be the leader of the House if the King could help it, and although the King was dependent on his ministers, the King’s favour was of the greatest importance to the members of his government.
    So the wily Fox had turned his eyes to the young man who was just emerging into the limelight. If the King would have none of him, why not cultivate the Prince? Why not educate the Prince in politics. Why not revive the old custom – so prevalent in the Hanoverian dynasty – of setting son against father. There could be, as there had been before, the King’s party and that of the Prince of Wales; and as every wise man knew it was moreintelligent to attach one’s wagon to the rising than to the setting star.
    The Prince was breaking out of his shell; he was indulging in amatory adventures to the tolerant amusement of the cynical members of the Court, and although a small part of these rumours reached the ears of his parents and their staid supporters, very little could be done to prevent the princely exploits. The Prince was as much a prisoner now as they could make him – still he managed his secret intrigues. But when he was eighteen they could scarcely treat him as a child of twelve. The people would never allow that. And George was only a few months from his eighteenth birthday.
    When he did appear in public the people cheered him wildly. George was all they expected a prince to be. With his powdered hair setting off the pink and white of his complexion and making his eyes look more blue than ever he was indeed a Prince Charming. Silver buckled shoes, coats of blue and pink satin, white buckskin breeches … He was a joy to behold. And while he was young and handsome the people would love him; and was it not always the case that after a period of Puritan rule the people adored a rake? And young as he was, George was