all men was usually one of the most mild
and gentle, testified his resentment to the Duke of
Richmond in such terms as he had never used before. The
Duke was speechless and almost petrified; he saw his
master and King justly irritated. The first transports
which rage inspires on such occasions are dangerous. Miss
Stuart's window was very convenient for a sudden revenge,
the Thames flowing close beneath it. He cast his eyes
upon it, and seeing those of the King more incensed and
fired with indignation than he thought his nature capable
of, he made a profound bow, and retired without replying
a single word to the vast torrent of threats and menaces
that were poured on him."

But if the Duke proved thus a poltroon, Miss Stuart showed a very
different metal. She was furious at the indignity of the King's
intrusion on her privacy, and proceeded to read him such a lecture as
his Royal ears had never listened to. She was no slave, she said, with
flashing eyes, to be treated in such a manner, not to be allowed to
receive visits from a man of the Duke of Richmond's rank, who came with
honourable intentions. She was perfectly free to dispose of her hand as
she thought proper; and if she could not do it in England, there was no
power on earth that could hinder her from going over to France, and
throwing herself into a convent to enjoy that tranquillity that was
denied her in his Court! And the enraged beauty wound up her lecture by
pointing imperiously to the door and bidding the King begone, "to leave
her in repose, at least for the remainder of the night."

Charles went away baffled and cowed, but with a fierce rage in his
heart. He had been defied, browbeaten, insulted by the woman for whom he
would almost have bartered his crown; and he vowed that he would be
revenged. On the following morning Miss Stuart, her anger now cooled,
and awake to the enormity of her offence against Charles, sought an
audience with Queen Catherine, to whom she told the whole story, begging
her to appease the King, and to induce him to allow her to retire to a
convent. So affecting was this interview that, we are told, the Queen
and the maid-of-honour mingled their tears together, and Catherine
promised to do her utmost to bring about a reconciliation.

One final attempt Charles made to capture the prize before it was lost
to him for ever. He offered to dismiss all his mistresses, from the