had already gained the
esteem and confidence of the queen. My lord, by reason of his services
to the late king, and his friendship towards his present majesty, took
to himself the privilege of speaking with freedom and boldness whenever
his advice was asked by the monarch. As Burnet tells us, the worthy
chancellor would never make any application to the king's mistress, nor
allow anything to pass the seal in which she was named; nor would he
ever consent to visit her, which the bishop considered "was maintaining
the decencies of virtue in a very solemn manner." The king knowing my
lord was the only one of all the strangers surrounding the queen whom
she believed devoted to her service, and to whose advice she would
hearken with trust, therefore bade him represent to her the advisability
of obedience.

Whereon the chancellor boldly pointed out to him "the hard-heartedness
and cruelty of laying such a command upon the queen, which flesh and
blood could not comply with." He also begged to remind the monarch of
what he had heard him say upon the occasion of a like indignity
being offered by a neighbouring king to his queen, inasmuch as he
had compelled her to endure the presence of his mistress at court. On
hearing which King Charles avowed it was "a piece of ill-nature that he
could never be guilty of; and if ever he should be guilty of having a
mistress after he had a wife, which he hoped he should never be, she
should never come where his wife was; he would never add that to the
vexation, of which she would have enough without it." Finally my lord
added that pursuit of the course his majesty had resolved on, was a most
certain way to lose the respect and affections of his people; that the
excesses he had already fallen into had in some degree lost him ground
in their good esteem, but that his continuance of them would "break the
hearts of all his friends, and be grateful only to those who desired the
destruction of monarchy."

Charles heard him with some impatience, but in his reply betrayed that
graciousness of manner which, never forsaking him, went far in securing
the favour of those with whom he conversed. He commenced by telling the
chancellor he felt assured his words were prompted by the affection in
which he held him; and then having by a pathway of courteous speeches
found his way to the old man's heart, his majesty broached the subject
uppermost in his mind. His conscience and his honour, he said, for
he lai