Page:The Queens of England.djvu/575

 CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK. 521 queen, who was of a sensitive and even hasty -disposition, re- sented these aspersions, and that, either as a mode of annoying her persecutors, or from conscious innocence, she was regard- less of appearances. Hence her adoption of Austin, a sail- maker's son, her visits to Vauxhall and masked balls, and her mingling familiarly with musicians and vocalists when at home. After she had gone abroad, it had for years been currently cir- culated in the upper circles that she was living improperly with Bergami, a courier, whom she had elevated to the dignity of chamberlain, and familiarly admitted to her table. To inquire into these facts, a commission, under the direction of Sir John Leach, had been dispatched to Milan in 1818. When Caroline had set out on her journey homeward, ministers were still led. by the statement of Mr. Brougham, her majesty's legal adviser, to hope that she would accept a settlement of £50.000 per annum and resign the crown. But it was found that Mr. Brougham had no authority for such proposition. The queen indignantly rejected it, and continued her journey. The persecutions which she had everywhere suffered, at home and abroad, seem to have roused her to a determination to meet and know the worst. No person of princely rank in England had for years been so cruelly pursued by the vindictive power of a husband, who was himself married to Mrs. Fitzherbert. and living a scandalous life with other ladies. The king or prince had actually put her under a terrible law. He had declared that he would not meet her either in public or in private ; and this was in itself an edict for her isolation from such as valued the favor of his court. All who looked for profit, preferment, or admission to the higher circles, avoided her as a pestilence. She stood alone. Such was the desolating effect of the regent's ban, that Caroline was ignored in the compliments paid to her husband by the kings of Europe. The conquerors of Napoleon when in England dared not visit her. The literary and philosophical felt the same influence, and obeyed it. Madame de Stael visited the prosperous and power- ful husband, but shunned the persecuted wife. Her life was converted into a living death. Such associates as would have been suitable to her station, and honorable to her as a woman. were for the most part kept from her by her position, of which it was ruin to partake. Once arrived, the foreign calumnies were gladly taken advantage of by the king, and Lord Liver- pool brought a bill into Parliament, July 5, 1821, to deprive Caroline of the right and title of queen, and to dissolve her mar- riage with George the Fourth. Witnesses were brought from