e King himself, who still yearned for the
divorce, the whole divorce, and nothing but the divorce. George
yielded, however, to the urgent advice of his ministers, with the
strong hope and belief still in his own heart that Caroline would not
accept the conditions, and would insist upon presenting herself in
England and asserting her position as Queen.

The Queen, meanwhile, had left Rome, where she had been staying for
some time and where she complained of the want of deference shown to
her by the Papal authorities. She was hurrying back to England, and
had written to Brougham requesting him to meet her at Saint Omer, and
there accordingly Brougham met her. Whether he was very urgent in his
advice to her to accept the terms it is not easy to know; but, at all
events, it is quite certain that she refused point-blank to make any
concessions, that she left Brougham with positive abruptness, and
hastened on her way to England. Among her most confidential advisers
was Alderman Wood, the head of a great firm in the City of London, a
leading man in the corporation of the City, and a member of the House
of Commons. Many eminent Englishmen--among whom were Wilberforce,
Canning, and Denman, afterwards Lord Chief Justice--were {6} were warm
supporters of her cause, for the good reason that they sincerely
believed her to be innocent of the more serious charges against her and
deeply wronged by the conduct of the King. Even her most resolute
enemies had to admit that whether her conduct in thus rushing back to
England and forcing herself on public notice were wise or unwise, from
the worldly point of view, it certainly seemed at least like the
conduct of a woman proudly conscious of her own innocence, and
determined to accept no compromise which might put her in the position
of a pardoned sinner. The nearer she came to England the more cordial
were the expressions of sympathy she received, and from the moment she
landed on English shores her way to London became like a triumphal
procession.

[Sidenote: 1820--The King's divorce proceedings]

In the mean time the King and his ministers had come to an agreement
which was exactly what the King had struggled for from the first, an
agreement that steps should be taken in the ordinary way, according to
the legal conditions then existing, for the purpose of obtaining a
divorce. The course to be adopted was to bring in a Divorce Bill, and
endeavor to have it passed through both Ho