is
rough, coarse, selfish ways, Walpole was an English patriot. He
thought of the country, but he saw no danger to national interests in
the change from George to Frederick. He saw, indeed, a great prospect
of miserable mismanagement, blundering, and confusion in the
Government. He foresaw the reliance of the coming King on the most
worthless favorites. He foresaw more corruption and of a worse kind,
and more maladministration, than there had been before at any time
since the accession of George the First. He feared that it might not
be possible for him to remain at the head of affairs when Frederick
should have come to reign. But he does not appear to have had any
dread of any immediate cataclysm or even disturbance. The troubles
Walpole looked for were troubles which might indeed make government
difficult, disturb the House of Commons, and bring discomfort of the
bitterest kind into Court circles, but which would be hardly heard of
in the great provincial towns, and not heard of at all in the
country--at least not heard of outside the park railings of the great
country-houses.

[Sidenote: 1737--A Royal love-letter]

Whatever the alarm, it was destined suddenly to pass away. While
Caroline was already secretly putting her heart into mourning for her
husband the news was suddenly brought that George was safe and sound in
Helvoetsluis. He had been compelled to return, and there he had to
remain weather-bound. He wrote to the Queen a long, tender, and
impassioned love-letter--like the letter of a youthful lover in whose
heart the first feeling on an unexpected escape from death is the glad
thought that he is to look once again on the fair face of his
sweetheart. George really had a gift for love-letter writing, the only
literary gift which he seems to have possessed. It is impossible to
read the letters from Helvoetsluis without believing that they were
written under the inspiration of genuine emotion. Their style might
well raise over again that interesting subject of speculation--whether
it is in the power of man to be in love with two or more women {76} the
same time. King George was unquestionably in love with Madame
Walmoden: while he was near her he could think of nothing else. He was
in Hanover, feasting and dancing, always in Madame Walmoden's company,
while his daughter was lying on what seemed at one time like to be her
death-bed at the Hague. It is not a very far cry from Hanover to the
Hague