Meanwhile, all joyousness vanished from the court; the queen
seemed thoroughly dejected, the king bitterly disappointed, and
the courtiers grievously disturbed. Moreover, rumours of the
trouble which had risen between their majesties became noised
abroad, and gave the people occasion of speaking indifferently of
their lord the king. Now Charles in his unhappiness betook
himself to the chancellor, who was not only his sage adviser and
trusted friend, but who had already gained the esteem and
confidence of the queen. My lord, by reason of his services to
the late king, and his friendship towards his present majesty,
took to himself the privilege of speaking with freedom and
boldness whenever his advice was asked by the monarch. As Burnet
tells us, the worthy chancellor would never make any application
to the king's mistress, nor allow anything to pass the seal in
which she was named; nor would he ever consent to visit her,
which the bishop considered "was maintaining the decencies of
virtue in a very solemn manner." The king knowing my lord was
the only one of all the strangers surrounding the queen whom she
believed devoted to her service, and to whose advice she would
hearken with trust, therefore bade him represent to her the
advisability of obedience.
Whereon the chancellor boldly pointed out to him "the hard-
heartedness and cruelty of laying such a command upon the queen,
which flesh and blood could not comply with." He also begged to
remind the monarch of what he had heard him say upon the occasion
of a like indignity being offered by a neighbouring king to his
queen, inasmuch as he had compelled her to endure the presence of
his mistress at court.
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