The Shadow of Great Britain

The air in the room was heavy and oppressive. King William IV slowly let out a breath. ”Delina, she... is she all right?”

Arthur bent forward and replied, ”Yes, Your Majesty. The Princess looks far better than the rumors outside would have it, at least for the last two days. She is still very weak, and she has lost a great deal of weight. But when I left Ramsgate, she was already able to get out of bed and walk. Of course, she still can’t go very far for the moment, and her steps are unsteady.”

King William IV listened in silence.

Seeing that the King was interested in this topic, Arthur added some detail. ”I heard from Lady Leisen that after the Princess got up yesterday, she lay on the sofa and played the piano with the Duchess of Kent until twelve o’clock. For lunch she had potato soup and orange jelly. In the afternoon Lady Leisen kept her company reading Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor.”

At this point, Arthur took a slip of paper from his breast. ”On this trip back, the Duchess of Kent and Lady Leisen also asked me to help buy in London some gifts the Princess had wanted for a long time—little porcelain figures from Dresden, vases, dolls, and a few novels she has been wanting to read.”

King William IV had just relaxed a little on hearing that Victoria could get out of bed and walk, but when Arthur mentioned ’porcelain figures, jelly, and dolls’, his expression suddenly darkened, and anger flared up in his eyes.

The King’s thin, bony hand slammed down on the armrest, making a dull thud.

Bang!

”Absurd!” King William IV’s hoarse voice suddenly rose, carrying an anger he could not contain. ”Delina was that gravely ill; they drove her to such a state that she went to the very gates of Hell! She almost died at the hands of that pack of fools, and now they imagine that a few dolls, a few books, that a few petty trinkets can paper everything over? They nearly killed her, yet now they still want to play the loving mother and the faithful servant! Delina may be a child who can be bought off with small favors, but I am not!”

Arthur bowed his head slightly. ”What Your Majesty says is entirely true. The Princess’s illness this time was indeed terrifying. Had Heaven not shown favor, the consequences would have been unthinkable.”

He paused deliberately for a moment, as if weighing his words with care. ”You may not know this, but when I was at Scotland Yard, I had a police secretary at my side...”

King William IV coughed in his fury. ”That boy from the Bonaparte family? Napoleon’s nephew?”

Arthur said in surprise, ”You know him?”

King William IV said irritably, ”Of course I know him! At a court ball earlier this year, I even met him. He certainly didn’t stint in speaking well of you then.”

Arthur gave an awkward smile. ”In that case, you surely understand better than I do that once the Bonaparte name reappears on the political stage of Europe, it is bound to attract countless people eager to attach themselves. Among those followers there are, to be sure, some who are loyal, but the majority are opportunists. He thinks he can play every side, but what he does not realize is that the most dangerous people are not the enemy, but those who wave the banner of loyalty only to give him a shove at a critical moment. Had it not been for these false supporters, he might never have made such a laughingstock of himself with that Strasbourg rising.”

King William IV lifted his eyelids. ”Are you trying to excuse that German woman?”

Arthur paused for a moment at this. ”I would not call it excusing her, but in Ramsgate I truly saw the same pattern. The Duchess of Kent... she is utterly exhausted at her daughter’s sickbed, yet sadly not everyone around her is a simple soul. Some of them style themselves as strategists, putting their own schemes above the Princess’s safety. The Princess is so young and easily troubled, and the Duchess’s will is weak, so she is easily manipulated...”

”Hah...” King William IV said stiff-faced. ”In the end they are all birds of a feather. Leaning on the prospects of a child, they think they can do whatever they please. Hmph! They call it ’assisting’, but it is nothing but plunder. If abolishing the Regency Bill were not such a damned nuisance—if even starting the process now wouldn’t mean waiting until next year’s Parliament opens to have it settled—then I would have stripped her of her regency long ago! Arthur, my lad, you remember this: I am not some doddering old fool! If they dare to dream of controlling Delina, to grab power right under my nose, I will personally overturn them!”

King William IV’s reply did not, in fact, surprise Arthur. Before hurrying to Windsor Castle, he had already known that the Regency Bill was, in all likelihood, not going to be abolished.

Just as the King had said, overturning an act was extremely laborious.

For once any act has been passed, it becomes a formal case on the records of Parliament.

If one wishes to repeal it, one must first introduce a new bill, then have it go through first reading and second reading in the Lower House, then the committee stage for clause-by-clause examination; once all is in order, it must pass the third reading, then be sent up from the Lower House to the House of Lords for a vote, and finally receive the royal assent.

In this way it must not only go through procedures in both Houses, but also endure lengthy debates and disputes.

By the time the Regency Bill was repealed, Victoria would probably already be of age; there was simply no need to pull one’s trousers down in order to fart—sheer, pointless trouble.

For King William IV, so long as he lived to see Victoria’s eighteenth birthday, that would be a complete victory.

And for Arthur, he actually did not care that much about the Regency Bill; he only needed Conroy to be forced out.

Although Conroy had worked conscientiously at Kensington Palace for nearly twenty years, over the years he had already long since taken his fill from the hands of the Duchess of Kent and Princess Sophia.