indeed afflicted at the prospect of their loss; and her
mortification was the greater because, having received no money
since she came into the kingdom, it was out of her power to make
them compensation for their services.

The thought of being deprived of her people in her present
unhappy condition rendered her so miserable, that she besought
the king to allow some of them to remain; and, likewise, she
employed others to make the same petition on her behalf.
Therefore one of her ladies, the Countess of Penalva, who had
been her attendant since childhood, and who now, because of
weakness of sight and other infirmities, scarce ever left her
apartments, was allowed to stay, as were likewise "those
necessary to her religion," and some servants employed in her
kitchen.

But these were not the only means the king took to thwart her
majesty and all connected with her. He upbraided the Portuguese
ambassador for not having instructed the queen "enough to make
her unconcerned in what had been before her time, and in which
she could not reasonably be concerned." Moreover he reproached
him with the fact of the queen regent having sent only half the
marriage portion; and so harassed was the ambassador by royal
wrath, that he took to his bed, "and sustained such a fever as
brought him to the brink of the grave." Regarding that part of
the dowry which had arrived, Charles behaved in an equally
ungracious and undignified manner. He instructed the officers of
the revenue to use all strictness in its valuation, and not make
any allowances. And because Diego de Silva--whom the queen had
designed for her treasurer, and who on that account had