Note 27 — Chapter XVI

Let Lord Brougham, who had so much to do with this interview, describe it: "After dinner I first begged the Princess Charlotte to give me a full account of what had caused her flight. She said she could not bear any longer the treatment she met with in changing her ladies without her consent, and of interrupting her intercourse with her mother and Margaret (meaning Miss Mercer[27]), her most intimate friend; and that it was her fixed resolution, after throwing herself on her mother's protection, to reside with her entirely. But she dwelt much upon the match; and, although I repeated what I had often assured her of, that without her consent freely given, it never could take place, she said, 'They may wear me out by ill-treatment, and may represent that I have changed my mind and consented.'