er. Foremost among them
was probably the mere desire of ridding herself, poor and living as she
was on the charity of the Empress-Queen, of another of the four girls
with whom she had been left a widow at twenty-five. It had been a great
blessing to get the two eldest girls, Louise and Caroline, educated,
housed for a time, and momentarily settled in the world by their
admission to the rich and noble chapter of Ste. Wandru: it must have
been a great blessing to see the second girl married to the son of
Fitz-James; it would be a still greater one to get Louise safely off her
hands, now that the third and fourth daughters required to be thought
of. So far for the desirability of any marriage. This particular
marriage with Prince Charles Edward was, moreover, such as to tempt the
vanity and ambition of a lady like the widowed Princess of Stolberg,
conscious of her high rank, and conscious, perhaps painfully conscious
of the difficulty of living up to its requirements. The Count of
Albany's grandfather had been King of England; his father, the Pretender
James, had lived with royal state in his exile at Rome, recognised as
reigning Sovereign by the Pope, and even, every now and then, by France
and Spain. No Government had recognised Charles Edward as King of
England; but, on the other hand, Charles Edward had virtually been King
of Scotland during the '45; he had been promised the help of France to
restore him to his rights; and although that help had never been
satisfactorily given in the past, who could tell whether it might
not be given at any moment in the future? The ups and downs of politics
brought all sorts of unexpected necessities; and why should the French
Government, which had ignominiously kidnapped and bundled off Charles
Edward in 1748, have sent for him again only a year ago, have urged him
to marry, unless it had some scheme for reinstating him in England? The
Duke of Fitz-James had doubtless urged these considerations; he had not
laid much weight on the fact that Charles Edward was thirty-two years
older than his proposed wife; still less is it probable that he had bade
the Princess of Stolberg consider that his royal kinsman was said to be
neither of very good health, nor of very agreeable disposition, nor of
very temperate habits; or, if such ideas were presented to the Princess
Stolberg, she put them behind her. Be it as it may, these were matters
for the judicious consideration of a mother; not, certainly