“. . . Lauderdale (who is here) tells me that when the Ministers have any papers for the King to sign, they write a letter to Bloomfield begging him to get the King’s signature, and Bloomfield again has to solicit Du Paquier, the King’s valet, to seize a favorable opportunity . . . but that, after all, the operation is the most difficult possible to get accomplished.
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* Napoleon’s second sister, the Princess Borghese. |
| 1821.] | LORD LAUDERDALE. | 27 |
“The different opinions Lauderdale and I have of late entertained makes no difference in his manner to me. There is not an atom of anything artificial in him, and he sat down to dinner yesterday with us four in his green ribbon, just as he did with us at Brussells. Apropos to his green ribbon: he told us that the day the King gave it him, and almost immediately after, he attended an appointment he had with Lord Bathurst . . . so he took that opportunity of saying:—‘His Majesty, my lord, has just forced upon me the Knighthood of the Thistle.’—‘How?’ replied Lord Bathurst with the greatest surprise, ‘who has made the vacancy?’—‘I don’t know anything about that,’ says Lauderdale, ‘but all I do know is that the King has just made four of us!’ . . . Then again, Lauderdale says when the King knighted these four so unexpectedly to them all, Melville, who was one, said:—‘Has your Majesty mentioned it to Lord Liverpool?’—‘Not a word of it, my good lord,’ says old Prinney, ‘it is not the least necessary, I assure you.’—To you and me, this was very pretty humor, I think, and if Prinney never did anything worse, I, for one, would most willingly forgive him.* . . .
“Now for another of Lauderdale’s stories. You know his connection with the Duke of York and all about him. He was executor, it seems, to the Duchess; so, before the poor woman was buried, the Minister from the Elector of Hesse requested an audience of Lauderdale, the object of which was to say that, as the Duke no doubt would marry again, he had thought it his duty to mention that the Elector, his master, had a daughter whom he thought well qualified to be the Duke’s second wife, and, well-knowing Lauderdale’s great influence with the Duke, he had judged it right to make this early application to him. About a week after the Duchess’s funeral, Lauderdale mentioned this to the Duke, who immediately said:—‘This is the second application to me, for the King has communicated to me his wishes that I should marry again; but my mind
| 28 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch I. |
“Not so, however, our dear Prinney. His mind is clearly made up, according to Lauderdale, to have another wife, and all his family are of that opinion. He goes straight for Hanover and Vienna after his Irish trip, so probably he will pick up something before his return at Xmas. . . .”
