The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1806: Chapter 105: Hastings’ Plan to Break Up the Lovers

As a battle-hardened former senior officer of Scotland Yard, Arthur was well-versed in the political schemes of framing and false accusations, and he had utilized these tactics against his shortsighted opponents more than once.

However, it was evident that Lord Elphinstone was a completely different kind of opponent than those he had faced before.

Before Elphinstone, Arthur’s approach to handling enemies was always to frame them without worrying about the aftermath.

But for such a formidable adversary, deeply favored by King William IV, backed by a rich family background, and notable in his own right, those less-than-honorable tactics couldn’t be employed openly. Otherwise, in future investigations, if Arthur went eager to be the forerunner, he would likely be the first to be sacrificed, to make an account to the public.

In other words, even if one were to act against Elphinstone, it must be from a perspective understandable to the public.

Moreover, Arthur was not keen on personally getting involved; he wanted the benefits without the risks — in short, the Sir wanted to reap without sowing.

In Arthur’s view, he was certainly not the only one unwilling to see Elphinstone and Victoria become romantically involved.

If this news were made public, Kensington Palace would certainly oppose this matter.

The Whig Party similarly couldn’t accept Victoria losing her right of succession.

Within the Tory Party, the mainstream under the leadership of Peel would largely be unable to accept the Duke of Cumberland.

As for King William IV, Arthur found the Sailor King’s attitude to be rather ambiguous.

Although it currently appeared that King William IV had fully accepted the reality that Victoria would inherit the throne, and both he and Queen Adelaide were very attentive to the niece, ever since Victoria entered the social circle this year, King William IV and the Queen had invited Victoria multiple times to attend various salon dances held at Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace, and Windsor Castle.

It’s just that... considering King William IV’s volatile temperament and his intense disdain for the Duchess of Kent, one couldn’t exclude the possibility that this old King might be blinded by hatred, wanting to facilitate the romance and marriage between Victoria and Elphinstone to avenge the Duchess of Kent.

However, even if King William IV wanted to do so, he’d likely do it openly and straightforwardly, by either openly supporting or providing them with opportunities for meetings, rather than using underhanded tactics.

But, once the King’s brother, Britain’s second-in-line to the throne, and Hanover’s first-in-line to the throne, the Duke of Cumberland, gets wind of this potential royal scandal, who knows what he might do.

This cannot be blamed on Arthur for being wary of the Duke of Cumberland, as this Prince had a terrible reputation in Britain.

In recent years, there were no fewer than three murder cases linked to the Duke of Cumberland.

The first one occurred 25 years ago, and the case wasn’t complicated; it was triggered by the Duke of Cumberland’s prolonged mistreatment of his servant, Selis, which caused him to harbor resentment. Ultimately, unable to bear it, Selis chose one evening to attack the Duke of Cumberland while he was asleep. During the struggle, Selis struck the Duke of Cumberland’s head severely and injured his thigh with a saber. After the incident, Selis fled to a storage room and killed himself.

Of course, this was the Duke of Cumberland’s account. At that time, the case shocked all of Britain. Although the court eventually accepted the Duke of Cumberland’s explanation, believing Selis attacked and then committed suicide from guilt, the British public generally blamed the Duke of Cumberland for Selis’s death.

Consequently, numerous conspiracy theories circulated throughout London City, with some believing Selis attempted to assassinate the Duke because he slept with Selis’s wife. Some even speculated that the Duke of Cumberland and Selis were lovers, and Selis attacked because he found out the Duke was unfaithful.

However, Arthur deemed the second speculation unreliable indeed. From the Duke of Cumberland’s staunch religious beliefs and the next two cases, one could conclude definitively that the Duke of Cumberland was a heterosexual.

In 1813, the Duke of Cumberland fell in love with his cousin, Fredrika of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

But the problem was that Fredrika was a married woman, the wife of Prince William of Solms-Braunfels and the widow of Prince Louis of Prussia. Yet their marriage was unhappy, so the couple was discussing divorce at the time, though hindered by religious regulations, the divorce was a lengthy process.

Thus, the Duke of Cumberland agreed with Fredrika that once she completed the divorce process, they would become husband and wife.

But, in the following year, 1814, the young Prince William suddenly died, leading many to feel his death was too coincidental and suspecting that Fredrika poisoned her husband to quickly regain her freedom.

The 1830 suicide of Lord Graves, clouded in Fleet Street’s portrayal, was also linked to the Duke of Cumberland, due to longstanding rumors of an affair between Lord Graves’s wife and the Duke of Cumberland.

Certainly, if hard-pressed to say these three murder cases were connected to the Duke of Cumberland, it indeed seems far-fetched.

But it can be confirmed that the Duke of Cumberland had once slapped the Countess at the Earl of Lindhurst’s banquet, and was consequently expelled from the venue by the infuriated Earl of Lindhurst.