but she had
been much attached to Madame de Spath, and she adored her Lehzen. The
Duchess knew only too well that in this horrid embroilment her daughter
was against her. Chagrin, annoyance, moral reprobation, tossed her
to and fro. She did her best to console herself with Sir John's
affectionate loquacity, or with the sharp remarks of Lady Flora
Hastings, one of her maids of honour, who had no love for the Baroness.
The subject lent itself to satire; for the pastor's daughter, with all
her airs of stiff superiority, had habits which betrayed her origin. Her
passion for caraway seeds, for instance, was uncontrollable. Little bags
of them came over to her from Hanover, and she sprinkled them on her
bread and butter, her cabbage, and even her roast beef. Lady Flora could
not resist a caustic observation; it was repeated to the Baroness, who
pursed her lips in fury, and so the mischief grew.

(*) Greville, IV, 21; and August 15, 1839 (unpublished).
"The cause of the Queen's alienation from the Duchess and
hatred of Conroy, the Duke (of Wellington) said, was
unquestionably owing to her having witnessed some
familiarities between them. What she had seen she repeated
to Baroness Spaeth, and Spaeth not only did not hold her
tongue, but (he thinks) remonstrated with the Duchess
herself on the subject. The consequence was that they got
rid of Spaeth, and they would have got rid of Lehzen, too,
if they had been able, but Lehzen, who knew very well what
was going on, was prudent enough not to commit herself, and
who was, besides, powerfully protected by George IV and
William IV, so that they did not dare to attempt to expel
her."

V

The King had prayed that he might live till his niece was of age; and
a few days before her eighteenth birthday--the date of her legal
majority--a sudden attack of illness very nearly carried him off. He
recovered, however, and the Princess was able to go through her
birthday festivities--a state ball and a drawing-room--with unperturbed
enjoyment. "Count Zichy," she noted in her diary, "is very good-looking
in uniform, but not in plain clothes. Count Waldstein looks remarkably
well in his pretty Hungarian uniform." With the latter young gentleman
she wished to dance, but there was an insurmountable difficulty. "He
could not dance quadrilles, and, as in my station I unfortunately cannot
valse and gallop, I could not dance with