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. On hearing which King Charles avowed it
was "a piece of ill-nature that he could never be guilty of; and
if ever he should be guilty of having a mistress after he had a
wife, which he hoped he should never be, she should never come
where his wife was; he would never add that to the vexation, of
which she would have enough without it." Finally my lord added
that pursuit of the course his majesty had resolved on, was a
most certain way to lose the respect and affections of his
people; that the excesses he had already fallen into had in some
degree lost him ground in their good esteem, but that his
continuance of them would "break the hearts of all his friends,
and be grateful only to those who desired the destruction of
monarchy."

Charles heard him with some impatience, but in his reply betrayed
that graciousness of manner which, never forsaking him, went far
in securing the favour of those with whom he conversed. He