A letter from Mrs. Donnellan throws a light on the Mordaunt affair.
“All I can gather of this most shameful affair is that there will be no more known till there is a publick enquiry,[179] and then if the scheme is proved by the General Officers to have been impracticable, those who sent them on it must suffer, but if it is found that they might have made more of it, I suppose they will.... It will be defered (the enquiry, I mean) till the sitting of parliament. Sir J. Mordaunt and Admiral Hawke have both been to Court, the Admiral was received graciously, the other taken no notice of, ’tis said he stooped to kiss the royal hand, but it was pulled back from him; wou’d it not have been more kingly to have forbidden his coming? ’Tis said soon after some of the troops were in the boats in order to land; there was a council of war called, and when Hawke thought they were landed, they were ordered on board again; ’tis certain there were 5 or 6 days spent on councils of war, and then Hawke, who was not concerned in them, desired them to come to some resolution, for he wou’d either land them or return home. Colonel Conway, I hear, showed the most spirit, and that our commen men showed no unwillingness to action.... The Duke came thro’ the city on Thursday at four in the afternoon. I saw some who saw him, there was no sort of notice taken of him; I think he was well off. I suppose you have seen the King of Prussia’s letter to our King, ’tis denyed but believed to be genuine. I think your remarks on the correspondence between the King of Prussia and Voltair (sic) very just; however, I forgive him some levity when conversed with a wit, and part since he knows when ’tis proper to the King.... I have got since I came home, Taylor’s Sermons, he is so good he frightens me, and so witty he makes me laugh.”
[179] The Mordaunt enquiry warrant was not signed till December 3, 1757.
ALLERTHORPE HALL.
J.G. Eccardt. Pinx. Faber. Mezzo.
Conyers Middleton D.D.
Emery Walker Ph. Sc.]
Mr. Montagu, writing from Sandleford on November 6, to his wife, mentions Hawke being sent out again with Boscawen, “was a clear proof that they had nothing to impute to him which was faulty.” He was busy planting at Sandleford, and said he must get chestnuts and acorns when he came to London, as the last sown had been rotten, “according to Millar the way of trying them is somewhat like that formerly us’d in the case of witches, such of them as swim are to be rejected and those that sink esteem’d good.”
Mrs. Montagu, with the advice of Dr. Shaw and Dr. Monsey, gradually recovered her health. Wormwood draughts were prescribed; her illness appears to have been a nervous fever, with weakness and loss of appetite. Of Dr. Monsey she says, “He has given me as much attendance as if I was a Princess of the blood, tho’ I have never given him a fee.” Dr. Shaw had been called off to the Duchess of Newcastle at Claremont, who was suffering in the same way. Great discussion is given as to giving of the “bark” without danger, and when to do so. “Dr. Shaw has had six guineas of me, I shall give him no more, I had difficulty to make him accept the last, but he attended me at first twice a day.” The Mordaunt affair is alluded to in each letter. In one occurs the following—
“Lord Chesterfield in a letter from Bath to Lady Allen writes thus: ‘Your ladyship may believe all the circles here think they have a right to form a court-martial to sit on Sir J. M. For my part I wait for information. I can never believe he wants courage or capacity, as I imagine he will show the scheme was impracticable and they must answer who sent him.’”
On November 7, Mr. Montagu writes to announce his intention of joining his wife, and adds—
“I see by the Gazette that the King of Prussia has obtained a great victory over the combined army under Prince Soubise. This is an unexpected event, and must give a turn to his affairs. One thing seems to be collected from it, that this enterprising courageous Prince has not made peace nor flung himself into the arms of France as we were given to believe.”
This was the Battle of Rosbach in Saxony, won against the Austrians and French by Frederick the Great of Prussia on November 5, 1757. The year’s correspondence ends with a letter to Emin of Lady A. Sophia Egerton, enclosing a letter of recommendation of him to her uncle, Mr. Bentinck, then in diplomatic service in Holland. Emin was going to rejoin the Prussian Army.