llowed in the dark by his assailant, and cut across
the thighs. On assistance arriving, Sellis, an Italian valet, who--it is
alleged--had thus attacked the Duke, was found locked in his own room
with his throat cut; and spots of blood were found on the floor of the
passage leading to the apartment which Sellis occupied. The next day a
coroner's inquest was held, and returned a verdict of _felo de se_. The
Duke of Cumberland soon recovered from his wounds, but this event gave
rise to much suspicion. In May, 1815, he was married to the third
daughter of the late reigning Duke of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz, a lady who
had been married twice previously, first to Prince Frederick Louis
Charles of Prussia; and secondly, to Prince Frederick William of
Solms-Braunfels The issue of this union was a prince, born at Berlin
(where the Duke resided from 1818 to 1828), May 27, 1817--the present
King of Hanover, known in England as Prince George of Cumberland. The
Duke continued to reside in England from 1828 until the death of William
IV., by which the Salique Law alienated the Crown of Hanover from that
of Great Britain--bestowing it on the Duke at the same time. At the time
of the suicide of Sellis, a statement was circulated to the effect that
the Duke had murdered his valet; that, in order to conceal this crime,
he had invented the story of a suicide, preceded by an attempt at
assassination, and that the wounds which the Duke received were
inflicted by himself. These accusations were negatived by evidence
produced at the inquest; still the force of that evidence, and even the
lapse of three-and-twenty years, did not prevent a revival of the
imputation, and the Duke in 1833 thought it necessary to institute a
prosecution in the Court of King's Bench, where the defendants were
found guilty. On that occasion he himself was examined as a witness, and
exhibited to the whole court, the marks of the wounds which he had
received in the head, from the inspection of which it was inferred that
they could never have been inflicted by his own hand. His titles were:
Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, and Teviotdale in Great
Britain, and Earl of Armagh in Ireland, and King of Hanover. He was a
Knight of the Garter, a Knight of St. Patrick, G.C.B.; and G.C.H. He was
also a Knight of the Prussian orders of the Black and Red Eagle, a
Field-Marshal in the British army, Chancellor and Visitor of the
University of Dublin, a Commissioner of the Roya