d claim to both, led him to repair the ruin he had caused Lady
Castlemaine's reputation by promoting her to the position of a lady of
the bedchamber; and his gratitude prompted him to avow a friendship for
her, "which he owed as well to the memory of her father as to her own
person," and therefore he would not be restrained from her company and
her conversation.

Moreover, he had proceeded so far in the business, that if not
successful Lady Castlemaine would be subjected to all imaginable
contempt, and be exposed to universal ridicule. If, he added, the queen
conformed to his wishes in this regard, it would be the only hard thing
he should ever require of her; and, indeed, she might make it very
easy, for my lady must behave with all possible respect in her presence,
otherwise she should never see his face again. Then he begged the
chancellor to wait upon her majesty, lay bare his arguments, and urge
her to receive the countess with some show of favour. The chancellor,
though not pleased with his mission, yet in hope of healing private
discord and averting public scandal, undertook to counsel the queen to
obedience, and accordingly waited on her in her private apartments.

Now her majesty's education had been such as kept her in complete
ignorance of the world's ways. The greater part of her life had been
spent in the peaceful retirement of a convent, which she left for her
mother's country palace, a home scarcely less secluded. Maynard, in a
letter preserved in the State Paper Office, written from Lisbon when the
royal marriage was proposed, says the infanta, "as sweete a disposition
princess as everr was borne," was "bred hugely retired. She hath," he
continues, "hardly been tenn tymes out of the palace in her life. In
five years tyme she was not out of doores, untill she hurde of his
majestie's intentions to make her queen of Ingland, since which she hath
been to visit two saintes in the city; and very shortly shee intends to
pay her devotion to some saintes in the country."

From a life of innocence she was brought for the first time face to face
with vice, by one who should have been foremost in shielding her from
its contact. All her training taught her to avoid the contamination
sought to be forced upon her; all her new-born love for her husband
prompted her to loathe the mistress who shared his affections. A
stranger in a strange land, a slighted queen, a neglected wife, an
outraged woman, her sufferings were