For awhile, however,
Charles, mindful of the services the chancellor had rendered him,
was unwilling to thrust him from his high place. But as time
sped, and the machinations of a clique of courtiers in league
with the countess were added to her influence, the chancellor's
power wavered. And finally, when he was suspected of stepping
between his majesty and his unlawful pleasures--concerning which
more shall be said anon--he fell.
At the head and front of the body which plotted against Lord
Clarendon, pandered to Lady Castlemaine, and, for its own
purposes--politically and socially--sought to control the king,
was his grace the Duke of Buckingham. This witty courtier and
his friends, when assembled round the pleasant supper table
spread in the countess's apartments, and honoured almost nightly
by the presence of the king, delighted to vent the force of their
humour upon the chancellor, and criticize his influence over the
monarch until Charles smarted from their words. In the height of
their mirth, if his majesty declared he would go a journey, walk
in a certain direction, or perform some trivial action next day,
those around him would lay a wager he would not fulfil his
intentions; and when asked why they had arrived at such
conclusions, they would reply, because the chancellor would not
permit him. On this another would remark with mock gravity, he
thought there were no grounds for such an imputation, though,
indeed, he could not deny it was universally believed abroad his
majesty was implicitly governed by Lord Clarendon.
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