of who should govern--reproached the queen with
stubbornness and want of duty; upon which she answered by charging him
with tyranny and lack of affection. One word borrowed another, till,
in his anger, he used threats when she declared she would leave the
kingdom. "The passion and noise of the night reached too many ears to
be a secret the next day," says the chancellor, "and the whole court was
full of that which ought to have been known to nobody."

When the royal pair met next morning, they neither looked at nor spoke
to each other. Days passed full of depression and gloom for the young
wife, who spent most of her time in seclusion, whilst the king sought
distraction in the society of his courtiers. The chancellor, after
his second interview with the queen, absented himself from court, not
wishing to be furthermore drawn into a quarrel which he saw himself
powerless to heal. During his absence the king wrote him a letter which
evinced determination to carry out his design. This epistle, preserved
in the library of the British Museum, runs as follows:

"HAMPTON COURT, THURSDAY MORNING.

"I forgot when you were here last to desire you to give Broderich good
council not to meddle any more with what concerns my Lady Castlemaine,
and to let him have a care how he is the author of any scandalous
reports; for if I find him guilty of any such thing, I will make him
repent it to the last moment of his life.

"And now I am entered on this matter, I think it very necessary to give
you a little good council in it, lest you may think that by making a
farther stir in the business you may divert me from my resolution, which
all the world shall never do; and I wish I may be unhappy in this world
and in the world to come, if I fail in the least degree of what I
have resolved, which is of making my Lady Castlemaine of my wife's
bedchamber. And whosoever I find in any endeavours to hinder this
resolution of mine (except it be only to myself), I will be his enemy
to the last moment of my life. You know how true a friend I have been to
you; if you will oblige me eternally, make this business as easy to me
as you can, of what opinion soever you are of; for I am resolved to
go through with this matter, let what will come on it, which again I
solemnly swear before Almighty God.

"Therefore, if you desire to have the continuance of my friendship,
meddle no more with this business except it be to bear down all false
and scandalous report