Chapter III, of Cassells Illustrated History of England, Volume 7 page 2

The duke of Leinster, in pursuance of his intention to oppose the bill in all its stages, moved that the order of the day be rescinded. The motion was negatived by a majority of two hundred and sixty to forty-one; the number of peers present being three hundred and one. Lord Carnarvon denounced the bill of pains and penalties as a measure unnecessary and unconstitutional. It was a species of ex post facto and illegitimate mode of proceeding against an individual, an unprecedented anomaly in the law. In one of the cases which they had adduced as the best precedent, the sentence passed on the criminal was that he should be boiled to death! Far better to have drawn a veil over the transactions, than to have searched the Alps, the Apennines, and the ocean, for evidence against the queen. The measure had excited the disgust of every honest man in the kingdom.

Lord Grey moved that it should be referred to the judges to determine whether adultery committed out of the country with a foreigner amounted to high treason. The motion was carried. The judges retired, and, after an absence of twenty minutes, returned, with their decision announced by chief justice Abbott, which was, that the crime in question was not punishable as high treason, under the statute of Edward III. Counsel on both sides were admitted; Messrs. Brougham and Denman, for the queen, sitting on the right of the bar, and the king's attorney and solicitor-general on the left. Mr. Brougham prayed to be heard against the principle of the bill. Permission was granted, and he addressed their lordships in a strain of impressive eloquence, demonstrating that the mode of proceeding now adopted was in the highest degree nnj ust to his illustrious client. He concluded by imploring their lordships to retrace their steps, and thus become the saviours of their country.

Next morning Mr. Denman spoke nearly two hours for the queen, strongly maintaining her right of recrimination against the king, who, when seeking for a divorce, should come into court with clean hands. He commented on the several clauses of the bill as he went along. He said the person who framed it had worked himself up into an ebullition of moral zeal, and used expressions for the full support of which the bribes and schemes of the prosecutors would produce witnesses. Referring to a former investigation, he called the attention of the house to the letter of Mrs. Lisle, in 1806, when flirting and familiarity were the worst things alleged against her royal highness. On the subject of familiarity he referred to a note addressed by a waiter to the prince of Wales - " Sam, of the Cocoanut Coffeehouse, presents his compliments to his royal highness, and begs " so and so. That illustrious person remarked, " This is very well to us, but it won't do for him t j speak so to Norfolk and Arundel." He concluded by apologising to the queen for putting even the hypothesis of her guilt, which he never could believe would be established; and whatever might be enacted by means of suborned perjury or foul conspiracy, he never would pay to any one who might usurp her situation the respect to which the laws of God and man entitled her alone.

On the third day lord King moved that the bill was not one of state necessity or expediency. This gave occasion to lord Liverpool, then at the head of the government, to express his sentiments upon the measure. He declared upon his honour and in his conscience that, if the bill passed, he believed the king would not marry again. But if the charges against the queen were proved, it was absolutely impossible not to conclude with an enactment for a divorce. Earl Grey replied to lord Liverpool, and called upon their lordships, from respect for their own character, not to persevere with the measure before them.

The attorney-general was then called in, when he proceeded to state the case against the queen. He traced her majesty's conduct from the time at which she left this country, in 1814. Her suite consisted of lady Charlotte Lindsay and lady Elizabeth Forbes, and the hon. Keppel Craven; Sir William Gell and a Mr. Fitzgerald as chamberlains, with captain Hash as equerry; Dr. Holland as physician; and other persons, in various capacities. She went first to Brunswick, her native place, and thence to Milan, where she remained three weeks. There Bartholomeo Bergami was received into her service as a courier, having been a servant in a similar capacity to a general Picco. The princess went next to Rome, and thence to Naples, where she arrived on the 8th of November, 1814. Her adopted child, William Austin, then only six or seven years of age, to whom she was particularly attached, had been in the habit of sleeping in a bed in the same room with her, while, according to the domestic arrangements that had been adopted, Bergami slept, among other menial servants, at a distance. On the 9th of November, three weeks after his appointment, an apartment was assigned to Bergami near her own bedroom, and communicating with it by means of a corridor. The surprise occasioned by this alteration was increased when the princess directed that the child Austin should no longer sleep in her room. There was an air of hurry, agitation, and embarrassment about her manner which awakened suspicion, which was increased in the morning, according to the story of the witnesses, when they found that her own bed had not been occupied, and instead of summoning her female attendants at the usual time, she remained in the apartment of Bergami until a late hour. Her recent arrival at Naples naturally induced persons of consequence to pay their respects to her, but she was not accessible. The attorney-general thought their lordships could have no doubt that " this was the commencement of that most scandalous, degrading, and licentious intercourse which continued and increased." The natural effect of this was that Bergami assumed airs of importance, and became haughty and arrogant with the other servants. A few days afterwards the princess gave a masked ball to the person then filling the Neapolitan throne. She first appeared as a Neapolitan peasant, but soon retired to assume another character, taking the courier with her, for the purpose of changing her costume. She then came forth as the genius of history, in a dress, or rather want of dress, of a most indecent and disgusting kind.

But the important fact was this, that that change of -dress took place in the presence and with the assistance of the courier, Bergami, and no other person. She afterwards appeared as a Turkish peasant, accompanied by Bergami in a corresponding dress, though he afterwards returned alone apparently chagrined. It would be proved also that she always breakfasted with Bergami, though he still acted as valet or footman. About this time he revived a kick from a horse, and had the influence to introduce a servant into the family to attend him, which servant saw Bergami and the queen kissing each other. From November to March the intimacy increased, and when the queen left Naples, she was deserted by Lady E. Forbes, Sir W. Gell, Mr. Craven, &c. Another fact which occurred at Naples was important. A public 'masquerade was held at the Theatre St. Charles, and to this the queen went, accompanied by Bergami and a fille de chambre. The dresses were so indecent that the parties were hastily compelled to withdraw. They had gone there in a common fiacre, or hackney-coach. It was no slight aggravation, that the queen knew at this time that Bergami was a married man, and that thus a double adultery was committed. During the whole of this time Bergami was admitted into the queen's bed-room, without knocking or notice. The assumption of Bergami was such, in consequence, that he soon became the lord and master of the house. On quitting Naples, the queen went to Rome, and from thence to Civita Vecchia, where she embarked on board a frigate. On her arrival at Genoa, she had no English lady in her suite. Bergami still filled the same menial capacity after this embarkation. At Genoa the intimacy increased. Bergami accompanied the queen in her rides and walks, and an apartment was assigned to him near her bed-room. Here it was found that the queen's bed was so little discomposed, that it was not necessary to re-make it. How happened it that this man always slept near the queen, and that his bed frequently appeared as if two persons had been in it? What conclusion could be formed, but that an adulterous and licentious intercourse had taken place? If this evidence were not found sufficient, it would be put beyond doubt by subsequent facts. Bergami had a daughter named Victoire, and at Genoa this child was received into the queen's family with a brother of Bergami, named Louis, and Faustina, his sister - nay, even his mother was also entertained by her majesty. How was this to be accounted for? At Milan, lady C. Campbell, also one of the ladies in waiting upon her majesty, quitted the queen, leaving her no female attendant. In her stead, the queen received a person of vulgar manners and low habits, another sister of Bergami, dignified by the name of the countess Oldi. She was now the only lady of honour attending and dining with the queen. Her majesty next made a tour to Venice - Bergami still as courier on the road. A circumstance occurred at Venice, strongly showing the intimacy between the queen and Bergami. The attendants and company having withdrawn after dinner, Bergami alone remained with the queen, who was seen to place a gold chain round his neck, which he returned to her majesty's person, and she again playfully gave it to him. On her return to Milan, Mr. W. Burrell quitted her service, after which it was observed that the queen's conduct to Bergami became even less restrained. Her house was called the Villa Villani, and there she presented her courier with a silk dressing gown, which he wore every morning. At this time her majesty also became more familiar with her servants, the consequence of her wicked attachment. The courier was advanced to the office of chamberlain, and dined constantly with the queen. One of the female servants would testify that she had often heard Bergami in the apartment of the queen, while the latter was frequently seen passing from Bergami's room to her own. One morning the servants observed the door of Bergami's room open, and the queen was seen on her way from thence to her own apartment, with the pillow under her arm on which she was in the habit of sleeping. The state of the dress of the queen also gave evidence that she had but just left the bed of her paramour. If this fact stood alone, without any support from the many other circumstances he had detailed, the attorney-general contended that it would satisfy the scruples of any jury in an ordinary case of adultery. It was to be remarked also that the daughter of Bergami, two or three years old, for whom the queen showed a love almost parental, and who was now dignified by the title of princess, slept constantly in her bed or bedroom, and was frequently heard to cry in the night for its mamma (for so the queen was called by it), when the queen was absent with Bergami, and when countess Oldi could not pacify it. At Catania she had influence to procure for Bergami the dignity of knight of Malta. She ordinarily spoke of him as the chevalier, and forsook all society but his.

The attorney-general referred to a number of facts of a similar kind to those already detailed; also to instances of indelicacy and indecency, in which the queen was said to have indulged in the presence of her attendants and of, strangers - things which seemed quite incredible, but which, if true, would be evidence of gross depravity.