ut if it's one or two, I'll write."

After dinner (as usual with the Household) I went to my room, and
sat up till a quarter past two. At a quarter to two I received the
following letter from Lord Melbourne, written at one o'clock:--

[Pageheading: THE QUEEN'S ULTIMATUM]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

_10th May 1839_ (1 A.M.).

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. The Cabinet
has sate until now, and, after much discussion, advises your Majesty
to return the following answer to Sir Robert Peel:--

"The Queen having considered the proposal made to her yesterday by Sir
Robert Peel to remove the Ladies of her Bedchamber, cannot consent to
adopt a course which she conceives to be contrary to usage, and which
is repugnant to her feelings."[38]

[Footnote 38: Greville asserts that the plan adopted by the
outgoing Cabinet, of meeting and suggesting that this letter
should be despatched, was "utterly anomalous and unprecedented,
and a course as dangerous as unconstitutional.... They ought to
have explained to her that until Sir Robert Peel had formally
and finally resigned his commission into her hands, they could
tender no advice.... The Cabinet of Lord Melbourne discussed
the proposals of that of Sir Robert Peel, and they dictated to
the Queen the reply in which she refused to consent to the
advice tendered to her by the man who was _at that moment_ her
Minister."--_Greville's Journal, 12th May 1839._]

_Queen Victoria to Sir Robert Peel._

_10th May 1839._

The Queen having considered the proposal made to her yesterday by Sir
Robert Peel, to remove the Ladies of her Bedchamber, cannot consent to
adopt a course which she conceives to be contrary to usage, and which
is repugnant to her feelings.[39]

[Footnote 39: Sixty years later the Queen, during a
conversation at Osborne with Sir Arthur Bigge, her Private
Secretary, after eulogising Sir Robert Peel, said: "I was very
young then, and perhaps I should act differently if it was all
to be done again."]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Melbourne._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _10th May 1839._

The Queen wrote the letter before she went to bed, and sent it at
nine this morning; she has received no answer, and concludes she will
receive none, as Sir Robert told the Queen if the Ladies were not
removed, his party would fall directly, and could not go on, and that