158 THE PRINCESS OF WALES [1813. 



solicit your attention to matters which may, at first, 

 appear rather of a personal than a public nature. If 

 I could think them so, if they related merely to my- 

 self, I should abstain from a proceeding which might 

 give uneasiness, or interrupt the more weighty occupa- 

 tions of your Eoyal Highnesses time; I should con- 

 tinue in silence and retirement to lead the life which 

 has been prescribed to me, and console myself for the 

 loss of that society and those domestic comforts to 

 which I have been so long a stranger, by the reflection 

 that it has been deemed proper I should be afflicted, 

 without any fault of my own, and that your Koyal 

 Highness knows it. 



" But, Sir, there are considerations of a higher nature 

 than any regard to my own happiness, which render 

 this address a duty both to myself and my daughter ; 

 may I venture to say a duty also to my husband, and 

 the people committed to his care 1 There is a point 

 beyond which a guiltless woman cannot with safety 

 carry her forbearance ; if her honour is invaded, the 

 defence of her reputation is no longer a matter of 

 choice; and it signifies not whether the attack be 

 made openly, manfully, and directly, or by secret in- 

 sinuations, and by holding such conduct towards her 

 as countenances all the suspicions that malice can 

 suggest. If these ought to be the feelings of every 

 woman in England who is conscious she deserves no 

 reproach, your Eoyal Highness has too much judgment, 

 and too nice a sense of honour, not to perceive how 

 much more justly they belong to the mother of your 

 daughter the mother of her who is destined, I trust, 

 at a very distant period, to reign over the British 

 empire. 



