Chapter 3

THE PRINCE IN FAIRYLAND

FEBRUARY 1749—SEPTEMBER 1750. I.—WHAT THE WORLD SAID Europe after Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle—A vast gambling 44 establishment—Charles excluded—Possible chance in Poland—Supposed to have gone thither—‘Henry Goring’s Letter’—Romantic adventures attributed to Charles—Obvious blunders—Talk of a marriage—Count Brühl’s opinion—Proposal to kidnap Charles—To rob a priest—The King of Poland’s ideas—Lord Hyndford on Frederick the Great—Lord Hyndford’s mare’s nest—Charles at Berlin—‘Send him to Siberia’—The theory contradicted—Mischievous glee of Frederick—Charles discountenances plots to kill Cumberland—Father Myles Macdonnell to James—London conspiracy—Reported from Rome—The Bloody Butcher Club—Guesses of Sir Horace Mann—Charles and a strike—Charles reported to be very ill—Really on the point of visiting England—September 1750