HANNAH LIGHTFOOT

to the altar, but the groom on that occasion was Isaac Axford, a respectable tradesman, who survived until the year 1816. There is every reason to believe that this marriage was arranged by the lady's own family, and it is highly improbable that after 1758 the future king ever saw his mistress again.1

A new turn of political affairs fired the Prince's bosom to another purpose, and left him little time or inclination for amorous dalliance.

In 1755 the Seven Years' War had begun. The next year the incapable Newcastle found himself with only three British regiments fit for service in the kingdom. Newcastle, as has been said, was too weak and ignorant to rule alone, too greedy of power to share it with more capable men. With incredible vigour France launched into the conflict, threatening to land a French army on British shores. In common with the rest of his fellow-subjects Prince George viewed the situation with concern yet confident that Britons were able to resist any invader. A wave of enthusiasm and patriotic zeal swept over the country. "All the country squires,' wrote Walpole, "are in regimentals." One of the first to apply eagerly for military appointment was the Prince himself. He wrote to the King offering his services. "It was a crisis," he said, "when every zealous subject was offering his service for the defence of the king and his country, and he, as Prince of Wales, would be uneasy in inactivity." He reminded his grandfather how he in his youth

1 See Thoms' Hannah Lightfoot, &c. For further entertaining particulars, see letter to Lord Sackville, Appendix B.

had sought and attained a soldier's reputation on the field of battle. The same blood, he urged, flowed in the veins of both, and could his Majesty be surprised if it inspired him with corresponding sentiments. It was true that he was young and inexperienced, but he hoped that personal courage, as well as the example he hoped to set, as the highest in rank, sharing the common peril, would make up for other deficiencies.' This spirited appeal of a youthful and ardent nature was received with marked coldness by the King. Cynical and practical by nature, his cynicism had only been strengthened by age and the experience of his Court. When the Duke of Newcastle entered the royal closet the old King handed him his grandson's letter. "The Prince," he observed, "was evidently intent upon elevating himself" (Il veux monter un pas). The Duke said he hoped his Majesty would return a kind answer, that the letter was very respectful and submissive. But the King dismissed the formal application with a mere line of acknowledgment. He misconstrued it as a presumptuous hint from a mere boy that royalty should take the lead in war. The old monarch needed no such hint. Deficient neither in courage nor energy on the field, he gave orders that his tents and equipment should be ready at an hour's notice.

1 Harris's Life of Hardwicke, vol. iii. p. 182.

CHAPTER II

THE PRINCE'S ACCESSION

DEBARRED by his grandfather's rather ungrandfatherly jealousy from taking any active part in the military preparations which were everywhere going forward, the high-spirited young Prince nevertheless took a deep interest in the progress of the war and its political complications. Newcastle was driven from office, and, in November 1756, Pitt became Prime Minister.

As we have seen, Pitt, in spite of his ability, was disliked by the King, and regarded with jealousy by the Whig leaders. Four months later, unable to make any headway in the gigantic task before him, he resigned. It then appeared that Newcastle, himself distrusted and discredited, was equally impotent to enlist the services of men of credit and ability to form a Ministry. A compact was agreed upon. All Newcastle wanted was the control of official patronage; all Pitt coveted was power, especially as regarded foreign policy in the direction of the war. "Mr. Pitt does everything, and the Duke gives everything," as Walpole put it; "so long as they agree to this position they may do as they please." And so began the Pitt-Newcastle