bridegroom. When they had retired, the king--being inflamed with
the words of his courtiers, who assured him the dispute had now
resolved itself into a question of who should govern--reproached
the queen with stubbornness and want of duty; upon which she
answered by charging him with tyranny and lack of affection. One
word borrowed another, till, in his anger, he used threats when
she declared she would leave the kingdom. "The passion and noise
of the night reached too many ears to be a secret the next day,"
says the chancellor, "and the whole court was full of that which
ought to have been known to nobody."

When the royal pair met next morning, they neither looked at nor
spoke to each other. Days passed full of depression and gloom
for the young wife, who spent most of her time in seclusion,
whilst the king sought distraction in the society of his
courtiers. The chancellor, after his second interview with the
queen, absented himself from court, not wishing to be furthermore
drawn into a quarrel which he saw himself powerless to heal.
During his absence the king wrote him a letter which evinced
determination to carry out his design. This epistle, preserved
in the library of the British Museum, runs as follows:

"HAMPTON COURT, THURSDAY MORNING.

"I forgot when you were here last to desire you to give Broderich
good council not to meddle any more with what concerns my Lady
Castlemaine, and to let him have a care how he is the author of
any scandalous reports; for if I find him guilty of any such
thing, I will make him repent it to the last moment of his life.