Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/158

 Caroline to her mother at Connaught House, only to find that the princess had gone to Blackheath. A messenger was despatched after her, and she immediately returned to comfort her daughter, but the counsels and advice of Brougham prevailed, and the princess obeyed her father's will.

Indignant at heing excluded firom court, and debarred from the society of her daughter, the Princess of Wales resolved to travel abroad, and she sailed for the continent, with the regent's sanction, in the Jason frigate on 9 Aug. She started with a suite mainly composed of English men and women, but from one cause or another they all shortly left her, and she did not fill their places worthily. After visiting her brother, Duke Frederick William of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, she turned her steps to Italy, and at Milan she engaged one Bartolomeo Bergami as her courier. Some infatuation led her to lavish upon this man every kind of favour it was in her power to bestow. He had served in some capacity on the état major of the force commanded by General Count Pino in the campaign of 1812-1814,and was offered the brevet rank of captain by Joachim, king of Naples, but refused it in order to remain in the service of the princess. His looks were in his favour, for his portraits show him as a handsome man. She raised him to be her equerry, her chamberlain, her constant companion, even at dinner; procured for him a barony in Sicily and the knighthood of Malta, besides several other orders, among which was one which she instituted, that of St. Caroline. She took his relatives into her service. Louis Bergami directed her household, Vallotti Bergami kept her purse, the Countess Oldi, Bergami's sister, was her lady of honour, and Bergami's child Victorine also travelled in her suite.

After living some time at Como, she visited many places, among others Tunis, Malta, Athens, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Jerusalem. Here she made her entry in somewhat theatrical style, and behaved with such levity that secret commissioners were sent from England to investigate her conduct. She was surrounded by spies, and, after her return to Italy, an attempt was made to seize her papers by surreptitious means.

On 6 Nov. 1817 the Princess Charlotte died, and the following year the Princess of Wales much desired to return to England, but she remained abroad for the next year and a half, and wintered at Marseilles in 1819. On hearing of the death of George III, 29 Jan. 1820, she proceeded to Rome, where, although queen consort, she was refused a guard of honour. She was never officially informed of the old king's death, and her name was omitted in the prayers of the church of England. On her way to England early in 1820 she received at St. Omer a letter on behalf of the king, in which it was proposed to allow her 50,000l. per annum, subject to such conditions as the King might impose, which were that she was not to take the title of queen of England, or any title attached to the royal family of England, and that she was to reside abroad, and never even to visit England. It was not likely that these terms could be accepted, and she at once set out for Calais, and embarked the same night for England. She set sail next morning, 6 June 1820, and landed at Dover the same day at 1 p.m., being received with a royal salute, no instructions to the contrary having been given. She was welcomed most enthusiastically, and her journey to London was an ovation. On her arrival she went to live at the house of her friend Alderman Wood, in South Audley Street. Her unexpected arrival filled the king and his party with consternation, and next day he sent a message to the House of Lords, accompanied by the evidence collected by the Milan commission, requesting their lordships to give the matter their serious consideration. A committee was appointed, which reported, with regard to the charges made against the queen, that 'it is indispensable that they should become the subject of a solemn inquiry,' and on 5 July the Earl of Liverpool proposed the introduction of 'a bill entitled an Act to deprive her Majesty, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, of the Title, Prerogatives, Rights, Privileges, and Exemptions of Queen Consort of this Realm, and to dissolve the Marriage between his Majesty and the said Caroline Amelia Elizabeth.' It was read a first time, and appointed to be read a second on 19 Aug. 1820, but this was only a preliminary sitting, the examination of the witnesses not taking place until 21 Aug. Brougham defended the queen. On 6 Nov. the House of Lords divided on the second reading of the bill—contents 123, non-contents 95; majority in favour of second reading, 28. On 8 Nov. the divorce clause was carried in committee by 67. On 10 Nov., the date of the third reading, the Earl of Liverpool suddenly announced that he was prepared to move that it be read that day six months. If the witnesses were not all perjured, the queen's relations with Bergami admitted only of the conclusion that she was guilty, and even her own friends and apologists were fain to admit that her conduct was open to the charge of grave indiscretion. Her mends claimed it as a triumphant acquittal, and Brougham's defence of the queen raised him to the summit of his profession. There can be but little doubt