thing that can give you the least disturbance or uneasiness. And these assurances I am desirous to give your majesty under my hand; because I would not omit anything possible for me to do that might save my Lord Marlborough from the greatest mortification he is capable of, and avoid the greatest mischief in consequence of it, to your majesty and my country. I am with all the submission and respect imaginable, your majesty's most dutiful and most obedient subject and servant."

The Queen took the letter, but for some time refused to open it; when, however, at the duke's repeated request she read it, her answer was, "I cannot change my resolution," adding that she must have back her gold keys as Groom of the Stole and Mistress of the Robes, which the duchess held. On this the duke, eager that his wife should retain her profitable places and her favour with the Queen, in the most moving terms spoke of the duchess's regret for the mistakes. she had made, her willingness to offer reparation, their former friendship, his own services, everything which he thought might melt her; but the Queen merely answered, "It was for her honour that the keys should be returned forthwith," and commanded that they should be brought to her within three days. The duke then threw himself on his knees at Her Majesty's feet, and entreated that at least ten days might be given him before the keys were required, "to concert some means of rendering the blow less mortifying and disgraceful," but the

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Sovereign saw no reason why this request should be granted.

Before two days had passed, says the duchess, "the Queen sent to insist that her keys should be restored to her." But this was a more difficult task for the poor duke to perform than even Her Majesty was aware of, for the duchess refused to give them up. Accordingly when important affairs next forced him. to wait on Her Majesty, he failed to return them; on which the Queen positively refused to discuss any business until he brought her the keys from the duchess. He was therefore obliged to return home and demand the keys, which, heedless of her recent humiliation, the duchess still refused to surrender. He therefore "laid his commands on her" to produce them, when after a violent scene she flung them at his head. The historian Cunningham who relates this fact says, that glad to obtain them on any condition, the duke snatched them up and hurried with them to the Queen, who received them "with far greater pleasure than if he had brought her the spoils of an enemy." The same writer adds that "the duchess flew about the town in rage, and with eyes and words full of vengeance, proclaimed how ill she had been treated by the Queen."

A glimpse of what passed in the ducal household is given by Lord Cowper who visited it the following day. The duke was reclining on his bed, the duchess, seated beside him, whilst the company that had come to condole with them were seated in a circle, listening to the extravagant raillery of her grace concerning Her

VOL. II.

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Majesty. When opportunity offered, Lord Cowper cautiously whispered to the duke, "how surprised he was at all the duchess ventured to say against the Queen; although he had heard much of her tempers this was what he could not have believed;" to which his grace mildly replied, "That nobody minded what the duchess said against the Queen or anyone else, when she happened to be in a passion, which was pretty often the case, and there was no way to help it." What struck Lord Cowper most in her grace's remarks was, "That she had always hated and despised the Queen; but as for that fool," pointing to her daughter, Henrietta Lady Rialton, who was crying bitterly, "she did believe that she had always loved the Queen, and that she did so still, for which she would never forgive her."

The duchess's anger was not so great as to prevent her remembering that some nine years previously, the Queen had offered her two thousand a year, which was then refused, but which she now thought fit to claim for the intervening time. She therefore forwarded Her Majesty a copy of the letter in which that generous proposal had been made, and before later favours had been bestowed, asking if the eighteen thousand pounds would be allowed her. To this the Queen consented, when the duchess forwarded her accounts of the Privy Purse, charging this sum, and writing at the end of them the sentence in which the money had been preferred; so that, says the astute. duchess, "when she signed them, she might at the