“Nevertheless it is a fact,” Lord Dorrington answered. “It was intended to make the engagement public last night at Lady Glossop’s ball. This, however, was circumvented by the young woman in question running away at the crucial moment.”

He paused and then continued,

”I am informed, however, on good authority that an announcement of betrothal will be sent to The Gazette tomorrow or the next day.”

“It is intolerable!” Lord Grenville said angrily. “This will be the third European girl the Prince has married in the last five years.”

Lord Dorrington did not alter the casual manner in which he was sitting, but there was suddenly something tense about his slim figure.

“The third?” he asked and his voice was harsh.

Lord Grenville consulted his papers.

“In 1793 the Prince married a Bavarian girl, daughter of an unimportant Baron. I should not have known about it had not the Bavarian Ambassador in London been a close friend of the Baron.”

He looked down.

“The girl died two years later in Kahriz. The Ambassador happened to tell me of the father’s deep distress. He was so eloquent about it that his account remained in my mind. When later a report was compiled on the Prince, I added this piece of information to it.”

“And the second bride?” Lord Dorrington asked.

“A Dutch girl,” Lord Grenville replied. “Fair, very attractive. They had a most spectacular Wedding. I happened to be in Amsterdam at the time it took place and everyone was talking of the magnificence of the bridegroom’s gifts. The party that was given after the Wedding lasted until dawn the following day.”

His voice hardened as he continued.

“I could not help being astonished when I heard at the end of last year that the Dutch bride had also died. The Prince once again was a bachelor!”

“Could you stop this third Wedding from taking place?” Lord Dorrington asked.

“I have no authority to stop any Wedding,” Lord Grenville replied. “Least of all that of a man who is not a citizen of this country. The only people who could prevent it would be the parents or Guardian of the bride.”

Lord Dorrington’s lips tightened.

After what he had heard from Alyna this morning, he was quite certain that Lady Maude would turn a deaf ear to any appeal however strongly worded.

“What else do you know about the Prince?” he asked aloud.

“Only the usual things that you would expect,” the Foreign Secretary replied. “He has a penchant for very young girls and he frequents bawdy houses which cater for the more exotic tastes of their clients.”

He looked again at his papers.

“It says here that he has an aggressive, almost uncontrollable temper when aroused, but from all I hear he is a persona grata in the Social world.”

“Women will forgive anything from a man if he is good-looking and pays them fulsome compliments,” Lord Dorrington said cynically.