The Loveless Marriage Read online

  Although the French fought back, repeatedly counter-attacking, the issue was never in any doubt.

  The battle ended with a magnificent charge by the fourth and seventy-ninth Highlanders with the eighth in support.

  By five o’clock, twelve hours after the first shot had been fired, the ridge was in British hands.

  Of the attackers more than four thousand five hundred had fallen with the Black Watch alone losing more than half their strength.

  The Earl, who had not yet come into the title, as his father was still alive, had greatly distinguished himself in the battle.

  The Duke of Wellington sought him out to congratulate him.

  He again stood out at the famous Battle of Waterloo in a splendid act of gallantry and was awarded a gold medal.

  When the fighting was over, there was no one who had enjoyed the Army of Occupation more than the Earl of Braradale.

  He had never been out of Scotland before he had joined the Army.

  He had been given an excellent education in Edinburgh, ending up as Head of his school.

  He had never been in contact with the English as he was when they had alternated the monotony of Cambrai with the excesses and excitements of Paris.

  Because he was extremely intelligent, he had learned a great deal about men.

  He also had his first education of women from the exceedingly attractive, exotic and experienced courtesans of Paris.

  It was not surprising that he had no inclination to return North in a hurry.

  When his father died unexpectedly from a stroke, he came home.

  After the burial, which was a very impressive Ceremony, he had received the traditional homage of the Clansmen as their new Chieftain.

  It took place with the pipes playing and as many of the Clan as were available clustered round The Castle.

  He had, however, by this time been to London and had become a friend, if that was the right word, of the King.

  The King had not yet been crowned and he made it very clear that he wanted the young Highlander at his Coronation.

  What happened then was an eye-opener to the Earl.

  He was both surprised and fascinated not only by what the King wore but by the many difficulties that arose when Parliament came to debate the Coronation expenses.

  He watched first while the King had nine wigs made for the occasion, each one costing fifteen pounds.

  And when the day arrived, he wore only one.

  His Majesty then sent an envoy to Paris at very great expense to find out the pattern of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Imperial robes.

  When he heard how fantastic they were, he decided that his might be modelled on them.

  This was just the beginning of the vast expenditure.

  St. Edward’s Crown, which had been made for King Charles II’s Coronation in 1660, was not Royal property.

  To the young Earl’s astonishment, it had to be rented from a mysterious owner at a fee that amounted to ten thousand pounds. This seemed extraordinary to him and he could not understand why.

  Instead of sending the Crown back the day after the Coronation, the King kept it in a cabinet.

  He would open it occasionally to feast his eyes on it or to show it to someone like the Earl and explain to him why it was so valuable.

  In Scotland the Earl’s father and, as far as he knew, the Chieftains of most Clans, were very careful with what money they had.

  He was therefore astonished when Parliament eventually voted two hundred and forty thousand pounds towards the cost of the Coronation.

  This included twenty-four thousand pounds for the King’s robes and fifty-four thousand pounds for the eventual purchase of the St. Edward’s crown.

  It was when the Coronation was over that the Earl began to think that he should return to Scotland.

  There was no one in The Castle to write to him and so he had no idea if any difficulties had arisen from his long absence as Chieftain of the Clan.

  The Elders, while extremely voluble with their tongues, were not good at using a pen or pencil.

  Then, most unexpectedly, the King decided to go to Ireland.

  He suggested or rather commanded that the Earl should go with him and the Earl was certainly not reluctant to do so.

  Having been so thrilled by France, he now had a desire to see a great deal more of the world.

  The King and his companions spent the voyage riotously and they drank great quantities of wine and whisky while singing noisy songs.

  When His Majesty had landed in Ireland, he was escorted to Phoenix Park by a yelling crowd.

  Outside the Vice-Regal Lodge the King made a hearty speech.

  As the Earl noticed, he was charming and witty to everyone he met and he attended all the functions arranged for him.

  He kissed a hundred ladies at the Royal Drawing Room and drank more sparingly now that he was busy.

  In Ireland he felt that he was the popular Prince who he had always wanted to be.

  There was no doubt that his visit was a huge success.

  When all his Ceremonial duties were done and he had declared that he loved Ireland and his heart was Irish, the King went to the country.

  With his special entourage he was carried from Dublin to the valley of the Boyne.

  He stayed at Slane Castle, the home of the Marquis and Marchioness Conyngham. Here, the King, as had been intended, was exceedingly happy and content for the Marchioness was his latest and was to be his last mistress.

  The Earl had had no idea until then that Lady Conyngham was so unpopular.

  He was surprised that their liaison was treated with laughter and ridicule.

  For the first time he then began to question whether the King’s popularity, in which he himself believed, extended very far outside The Palace.

  He was told by one of the Courtiers that it was common knowledge that the Police paid men to cheer the King in the streets.

  Even though he was aware of it, his eyes filled with tears when he heard them and saw them waving their hats.

  The Earl, who was very perceptive and what the Scots called ‘fey’, could understand that His Majesty wished to believe that the shouts of ‘hoorah’ were genuine.

  By this time he had developed a real affection for the King.

  While George IV seemed to many people corpulent, he had lost three pounds during the trial of the Queen, which had humiliated him.

  He was still very fat, which made him walk slowly.

  At the same time it gave his movements an impressive dignity.

  The Earl could not forget how, despite the over-rich and theatrical robes he wore at his. Coronation, the majesty of his appearance was overbearing.

  It had made the noble congregation wave their scarlet and emerald caps, shouting, ‘God Bless the King’ with a sincerity that could not be denied.

  When they finally came back to England, the King’s visit to Ireland was followed by one to the Continent.

  Again the Earl was invited to go with him and accepted with alacrity.

  He met Prince Metternich, whom he had heard and read about and admired.

  Both journeys were very enjoyable as far as the Earl was concerned, yet so costly that he found it almost incredible that so much could be spent on so few.

  He also found it strange to watch the way that the King behaved with Lady Conyngham.

  They were both, the Earl decided, emotional and sentimental and, although it seemed so strange, pious.

  He could not help noticing that, while Lady Conyngham was rich, she was exceedingly greedy.

  She quickly amassed a huge store of jewellery as gifts from the King.

  While her gratitude for his favours was obviously genuine, she never appeared satisfied and was always asking for more and yet more.

  The Earl had not observed a love affair of this sort before.

  When they quarrelled, and it was often, like children they then showed each other spite and bad temper.

  He did not think it co
mic as so many of the King’s entourage did.

  In fact he thought that these middle-aged lovers making no secret of their feelings in public were rather sad.

  It did not strike him that he was actually learning a great deal about life, but then it was something that he would never have learned if he had not left the barren moors of Scotland.

  He watched while the King and his mistress were holding hands and smiling through the tears which they often shed in public.

  He told himself that he would never behave in such a way.

  At the same time he knew what he wanted later in his life.

  It was the joy of both physical and emotional love which was to be found only with an understanding woman who would support him in everything that he had to do.

  It was, however, a strange education for a young man.

  As a Scot, the strict principles that he had been brought up on caused him to be shocked by Lady Conyngham’s husband’s behaviour.

  The Marquis openly tried and then failed to acquire the office of Lord Chamberlain of the Royal Household.

  He was very annoyed and protested loudly when he was not given it.

  He was finally satisfied with the post of Lord Steward of the Royal Household, an Office that was at least as old as that of Lord Chamberlain.

  The Earl was, however, aghast at the way that the King fought on behalf of his mistress’s husband.

  At the end of one particularly violent dispute, when he had been arguing with the Duke of Wellington, the gallant soldier replied,

  “If you don’t like us, why do you not turn us out?”

  It seemed to the Earl that the King lowered himself by such wrangles. It was certainly not the way that his Courtiers should speak to him.

  These things, however, all resulted in the Marquis of Conyngham becoming more and more unpopular, not only with the King’s Household but with the Ministers’ wives and the public outside The Palace.

  When the year 1822 started, the atmosphere was most uncomfortable in The Palace and was getting worse day by day.

  It was then that the Earl suggested that the King should go to Scotland.

  His Majesty was at the moment not in very good health.

  He was tortured by gout and endured many painful treatments in the hope of relieving his agony.

  He began to talk of dying and the Earl could see the boredom and contempt in the eyes of those obliged to listen to him and all his ramblings.

  It was obviously important that the King’s mind should be occupied by something other than himself.

  When the Earl mentioned Scotland, the King looked at him in astonishment as if he had never heard of the place.

  In February the King was obliged to appear in public for the Opening of Parliament.

  Although the crowd was kept at a good distance, their scornful laughter, jeers and shouts could be heard above the noise of beating drums.

  Knowing how much this would upset His Majesty, the Earl was determined to find some way of raising his spirits.

  He had to prevent him from realising that his unpopularity amongst the ordinary people was steadily increasing.

  Determinedly he pressed even more persuasively for a visit to his own country.

  He told the King that the people would welcome him even more enthusiastically than he had been welcomed in Ireland.

  When the King would listen, he used to tell him stories of the battles that his own Clan had been involved in.

  He would also recount the invasions of the Vikings and the damage that they had done in the far North.

  The King was quick to realise that the Earl looked like a Viking himself.

  Six foot two inches in height, he had fair hair and blue eyes.

  He was, in fact, exactly like the men who had brought their huge boats across the North Sea to attack the Scots.

  They ravished their women and carried away their sheep and cattle.

  The Earl related how the inhabitants of the great Clans like his own had fought back and often succeeded in driving the Vikings away.

  Others had hidden in secret caves under the hills, emerging only when the ships had been launched to cross the North Sea and return here with their spoils.

  The Earl had great help in what he was trying to achieve from the Viscount Montagu.

  He was a stern and civilised man who was a fine example of the Scottish aristocrats who had so delighted the author, Sir Walter Scott.

  The Viscount was a poet in his own right and brother of the fourth Duke of Buccleuch.

  There was no doubt that the King admired Viscount Montagu and, like the Earl, he was continually asking whether or not the King would visit Scotland this year.

  The King listened, but he still could not make up his mind.

  By the spring the Viscount had become sceptical and he said that he did not believe that the King would ever come to Scotland.

  This made the Earl even more determined that he should.

  But he was aware more than anyone else that there were a great number of difficulties.

  The first was that Holyrood House was no longer a Palace after two centuries without a Royal tenant.

  It had become, as the Earl knew because he had been there, a draughty apartment house for Grace and Favour supplicants.

  It was also used as temporary lodgings by ennobled soldiers or archaic Officers or guests who were staying only a short time.

  However, in April things began to look a little more cheerful.

  The Viscount wrote to Sir Robert Peel, offering the King, if he did come to Scotland, his nephew’s house, Dalkeith Palace.

  This, the Earl was aware, was an impressive Palladian building set in a landscaped Park just seven miles to the South-East of Edinburgh.

  He agreed that it was the best and most comfortable accommodation available.

  To his considerable surprise neither the Earl of Hopetoun nor the Marquis of Lothian nor Viscount Melville, who were all a short distance from Edinburgh, had offered their houses or Castles to their King.

  The offer of Dalkeith Palace had therefore removed the strongest objection the King had made to a Scottish visit.

  He had asked somewhat petulantly where he would be sleeping and Dalkeith Palace was therefore provisionally accepted.

  But again no one could really be sure whether the King would go to Scotland at all.

  One minute it seemed certain that he would go and the next he would say that he was far too ill and it was too far away.

  In June the Season was in full swing.

  Most people had forgotten the argument at the beginning of the year when Lord Melville had issued a statement in which he had said,

  “It is now generally believed that His Majesty has no intention of visiting the Continent during the present year. In consequence the report is revived that His Majesty intends to visit Scotland in the course of the present summer.”

  The Earl jumped for joy.

  It was perhaps his enthusiasm that made the King more interested in the idea.

  In fact a Courier was dispatched to Edinburgh and he gave notice to the Lord Provost that his City could shortly expect a visit from the King.

  The Earl was now completely convinced that the King would keep his word to come to Scotland.

  He decided that he must therefore return home to make sure that his Clan, who were one of the oldest among the Highlanders, were properly represented.

  There would be parades, reviews and Festivities in Edinburgh at which they should be present.

  The Earl was delighted when he learnt that Sir Walter Scott, for whom he had a great admiration, would be in charge of all the necessary arrangements.

  There would therefore be no possibility of their not being correct or ending in unpleasant feuds.

  No one was more aware than he was of how touchy the Scots could be about their own importance.

  There would be countless claims as to who should be first in charge or honoured when an occasion like this aro
se.

  He therefore said ‘goodbye’ to the King and telling him that he would be waiting for him in Edinburgh.

  “I shall miss you, Braradale,” the King said, “and, when I do arrive, I shall expect you to be in attendance on me and staying with me at Dalkeith Palace.”

  “Your Majesty is very gracious,” the Earl replied, “and I shall, of course, be extremely honoured to do so. At the same time I must not make too many of my countrymen jealous.”

  The King laughed.

  “You are bound to do that just when they look at you and I have never seen anyone look finer in a kilt than yourself.”

  “Having said that, Your Majesty, you yourself, I feel, should wear one,” the Earl replied.

  The King stared at him in astonishment.

  “A kilt?” he questioned.

  “It would be very impressive and I cannot imagine anyone who would carry the cap with its eagle feathers with more dignity than Your Majesty.”

  He saw by the light in the King’s eye that it was an idea that he was already enjoying.

  By the time the Earl had packed and was about to leave, he learned that the King was considering which of the many tartans he would wear and making enquiries into what other adornments he would require as the King of Scotland.

  The Earl returned to the North by ship. It was quicker and also far more comfortable than by road.

  He was an excellent sailor and enjoyed even the roughest of seas.

  It had never affected him and this was because, when he was a baby in arms, he had been taken out in fishing boats because his father liked his mother to accompany him. She agreed to go and take her son with her.

  It was only as the Earl had his first sight of the Scottish coast ahead that he realised how long he had been away.

  He was also aware of how much Scotland meant to him and it was something difficult to explain even to himself.

  Yet there was a sudden feeling in his heart, which was almost one of ecstasy as he saw the moors rising high against the sky.

  He felt the air of Scotland touching his face.

  He arrived at the nearest Harbour to Braradale Castle, which was only five miles away.

  There was a piper of his Clan waiting to pipe him ashore and there was a carriage drawn by two well-bred horses to carry him home.

  As the horses turned in at the impressive entrance of the drive that led up to The Castle, he heard more pipes starting up in the distance.