groom humbly sued for
pardon, pleading ignorance of law in excuse of their misbehavior.

The scandalous consequences of that marriage are known to every reader
who has laughed over the more pungent and comic scenes of English
history. Whilst Lady Hatton gave masques and balls in the superb palace
which came into her possession through marriage with Sir Christopher
Hatton's nephew, Coke lived in his chambers, working at cases and
writing the books which are still carefully studied by every young man
who wishes to make himself a master of our law. In private they had
perpetual squabbles, and they quarrelled with equal virulence and
indecency before the world. The matrimonial settlement of their only and
ill-starred daughter was the occasion of an outbreak on the part of
husband and wife, that not only furnished diversion for courtiers but
agitated the council table. Of all the comic scenes connected with that
unseemly _fracas_, not the least laughable and characteristic was the
grand festival of reconciliation at Hatton House, when Lady Hatton
received the king and queen in Holborn, and expressly forbade her
husband to presume to show himself among her guests. "The expectancy of
Sir Edward's rising," says a writer of the period,[6] "is much abated by
reason of his lady's liberty,[7] who was brought in great honor to
Exeter House by my Lord of Buckingham from Sir William Craven's, whither
she had been remanded, presented by his lordship to the king, received
gracious usage, reconciled to her daughter by his Majesty, and her house
in Holborn enlightened by his presence at a dinner, where there was a
royal feast; and to make it more absolutely her own, express
commandment given by her ladyship, that neither Sir Edward Coke nor any
of his servants should be admitted."

If tradition may be credited, the law is greatly indebted to the class
of women whom it was our forefathers' barbarous wont to punish with the
ducking-stool. Had Coke been happy in his second marriage, it is assumed
that he would have spent more time in pleasure and fewer hours at his
desk, that the suitors in his court would have had less careful
decisions, and that posterity would have been favored with fewer
reports. If the inference is just, society may point to the commentary
on Littleton, and be thankful for the lady's unhappy temper and sharp
tongue. In like manner the wits of the following century maintained that
Holt's steady application to business w