Two months after the
occurrence of this incident, the young duchess was appointed a
lady of the bedchamber to the queen, and therefore had apartments
at Whitehall. There was little doubt now entertained she any
longer rejected his majesty's love; and in order to remove all
uncertainties on the point which might arise in her husband's
mind, the king one night, when he had taken over much wine,
boasted to the duke of her complaisancy. Lord Dartmouth, who
tells this story, says this happened "at Lord Townshend's, in
Norfolk, as my uncle told me, who was present." Soon after his
grace accepted an honourable exile as ambassador to Denmark, in
which country he died.
During the absence of the Duchess of Richmond, my Lady
Castlemaine, then in the uninterrupted possession of power, led
his majesty a sorry life. Her influence, indeed, seemed to
increase with time, until her victim became a laughing-stock to
the heartless, and an object of pity to the wise. Mr. Povy,
whose office as a member of the Tangier Commission brought him
into continual contact with the court, and whose love of gossip
made him observant of all that passed around him, in telling of
"the horrid effeminacy of the king," said that "upon any falling
out between my Lady Castlemaine's nurse and her woman, my lady
hath often said she would make the king make them friends, and
they would be friends and be quiet--which the king had been fain
to do." Nor did such condescension on his majesty's part incline
his mistress to treat him with more respect; for in the quarrels
which now became frequent betwixt them she was wont to term him a
fool, in reply to the kingly assertion that she was a jade.
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