“. . . Let me mention a thing which Sefton told me when I was at Stoke. I was
expressing some surmise about this late jaw respecting the Duchess of Kent’s absence from the
Coronation, and the cause of it, when, having according to custom bound me to
secrecy, he said he would tell me all about it, having had it from Brougham. The offensive attack upon her for her
absence, assigning pure pique as the cause of it, made its appearance in the
Times
newspaper, and this became food for all the others; upon which
B. sent his secretary Le
Marchant to Barnes,
editor of the Times, insisting
upon knowing whose article it was, knowing as he did that it was pure
invention. Barnes said it came from an authority that he
implicitly relied on, but that he could not and would not give him up.
Le Marchant, when he brought this report to
B., gave it as his opinion that, if
B. himself took Barnes in hand,
the latter would strike. He was, of course, summoned accordingly, and having
yielded to the thundering or seducing arguments of our
Vaux, the libeller turned out to be no other than
Henry de Ros, as at present
Lord de Ros. It seems he and
Barnes have been lately mixed up a good deal together
at Paris, and this is the use de Ros has chosen to make of
the connection. It is barely possible that de Ros may have
believed this to be true, upon the authority of his sister, who, you know, is Maid of Honor to the Queen. . . . The object, however, both
| 238 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. IX. |
“The Duchess of Kent wrote to her adviser, Vaux, in a strain of the greatest distress and vexation, but she is now pacified, and he has informed her of his discovery of the slanderer, but that he humbly requests of her R. Highness that she will not command him to disclose the author. In the mean time, as no one knows better how to turn any little matter to account than our Vaux, and as he knows that de Ros is to be a thorough-stitch opposer of our Reform Bill in the Lords, he sends for the innocent Leinster, and he states to him with unaffected regret that Lord de Ros has unfortunately compromised himself and character in an affair of great publick importance, and is entirely in the hands of the Government. Under such circumstances, Vaux requests the Duke to urge his kinsman with all his might to use every possible caution against this matter being made publick. Now was there ever? Do you think de Ros’s vote will be withheld by this plot of Vaux’s?”
