of a great many brave men, who had exhibited repeated proofs of valour
and capacity. He expostulated with his sovereign on this extraordinary
mark of partial regard to the brother of Mrs. Masham, which he could not
help considering as a declaration against himself and his family, who
had so much cause to complain of that lady's malice and ingratitude. To
this remonstrance the queen made no other reply, but that he would do
well to consult his friends. The earl of Godolphin enforced his friend's
arguments, though without effect; and the duke retired in disgust to
Windsor. The queen appeared at council without taking the least notice
of his absence, which did not fail to alarm the whole whig faction.
Several noblemen ventured to speak to her majesty on the subject, and
explain the bad consequences of disobliging a man who had done such
eminent services to the nation. She told them his services were still
fresh in her memory; and that she retained all her former kindness for
his person. Hearing, however, that a popular clamour was raised, and
that the house of commons intended to pass some votes that would be
disagreeable to her and her new counsellors, she ordered the earl of
Godolphin to write to the duke to dispose of the regiment as he should
think proper, and return to town immediately. Before he received this
intimation, he had sent a letter to the queen desiring she would permit
him to retire from business. In answer to this petition, she assured him
his suspicions were groundless, and insisted upon his coming to
council. The duchess demanded an audience of her majesty, on pretence
of vindicating her own character from some aspersions. She hoped to work
upon the queen's tenderness, and retrieve the influence she had lost.
She protested, argued, wept, and supplicated; but the queen was too
well pleased with her own deliverance from the tyranny of the other's
friendship, to incur such slavery for the future. All the humiliation
of the duchess served only to render herself the more contemptible. The
queen heard her without exhibiting the least sign of emotion, and all
she would vouchsafe, was a repetition of these words--"You desired no
answer, and you shall have none;" alluding to an expression in a letter
she had received from the duchess. As an additional mortification to the
ministry, the office of lord chamberlain was transferred from the duke
of Kent to the duke of Shrewsbury, who had lately voted with the tories,