gh things should prove well)
this eight or nine months. They have sent to desire me very earnestly to
come to them, and bring my boy; 'tis the same thing as pensioning in a
nunnery, for no mortal man ever enters the doors in the absence of their
father, who is gone post. During this uncertainty, I think it will be a
safe retreat; for Middlethorpe stands exposed to plunderers, if there be
any at all."

A day or two later this letter was followed by another:

"You made me cry two hours last night. I cannot imagine why you use me
so ill; for what reason you continue silent, when you know at any time
your silence cannot fail of giving me a great deal of pain; and now to a
higher degree because of the perplexity that I am in, without knowing
where you are, what you are doing, or what to do with myself and my dear
little boy. However (persuaded there can be no objection to it), I
intend to go to-morrow to Castle Howard, and remain there with the young
ladies, 'till I know when I shall see you, or what you would command.
The Archbishop and everybody else are gone to London. We are alarmed
with a story of a fleet being seen from the coasts of Scotland. An
express went from thence through York to the Earl of Mar. I beg you
would write to me. 'Till you do I shall not have an easy minute. I am
sure I do not deserve from you that you should make me uneasy. I find I
am scolding, 'tis better for me not to trouble you with it; but I cannot
help taking your silence very unkindly."

CHAPTER V

THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE I (1714)

Lady Mary shows an increasing interest in politics--She tries to incite
her husband to be ambitious--Montagu not returned to the new
Parliament--His lack of energy--Correspondence--The Council of
Regency--The King commands Lord Townshend to form a Government--The
Cabinet--Lord Halifax, First Lord of the Treasury--Montagu appointed a
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury--Correspondence--The unsatisfactory
relations between Lady Mary and Montagu.

At the time of the death of Queen Anne Lady Mary began to show an
increased interest in polities, at least in so far as the career of
Montagu was bound up with it. She began to try to persuade her husband
to be, to some extent at least, ambitious. It may be that she was not
happy at the thought of being married to a man who was regarded as a
nonentity. She was always urging him to put his best foot forward.
Sometimes she wrote to him as to a naughty child.