Chapter XII: A Crown Lost, and a Grave Won

The Queen’s agitation--Her illness--Her sufferings--
Desires her diary may be destroyed--Her death--Sketch
of her life--Her mother a foolish woman--Every sense of
justice outraged by the King--Inconsistency of the Whigs
--The Queen persecuted even after death--Disrespect
shown to her remains by the Government--Protest against
a disgraceful haste to remove her remains--Course of the
funeral procession interrupted by the people--Collision
between the military and the populace--Effort to force
a way through the people ineffectual--The procession
compelled to pass through the City--The plate on the
Queen’s coffin removed--The funeral reaches Harwich--The
Queen’s remains taken to Brunswick--Funeral oration--
Tombs of the illustrious dead there 401

_ADELAIDE OF SAXE-MEINENGEN_,

WIFE OF WILLIAM IV.

The pocket Duchy--Old customs--Early training--The Father
of the Princess Adelaide--Social life at the Ducal Court--
Training of the Princess Adelaide--Marriage Preliminaries
--English Parliament--The Duke of Clarence--Arrival in
London of the Princess--Quaint royal weddings--At home
and abroad--Duke and Duchess of Clarence at Bushey--‘State
and Dirt’ at St James’s--William IV. and Queen Adelaide--
Course of life of the new Queen-consort--King’s gallantry
to an old love--Royal simplicity--The Sovereigns and
the Sovereign people--Court anecdotes--Drawing-rooms
--Princess Victoria--The Coronation--Incidents of the
day--Coronation finery of George IV.--Princess Victoria
not present--Revolutionary period--Reform question--
Unpopularity of the Queen--Attacks against her on the part
of the press--Violence of party spirit--Friends and foes
--Bearing of the King and Queen--Duchess of Angoulême--
King a republican--His indiscretion--Want of temper--
Continental press adverse to the Queen--King’s declining
health--Conduct of Queen Adelaide--King William’s death
--Declining health of the Queen--Her travels in search
of health--Her last illness--Her will--Death--And
funeral 419

LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND.

_CHARLOTTE SOPHIA.--Cont._