ted. Though I was
enjoying myself, I was anxious to post our letters, as mine gave a full
account of several matters at court concerning which I knew George ought
to be informed.

Among other news, I told him that King Charles had sent a messenger
into France carrying a personal letter to King Louis, asking his help
in finding the man Hamilton, who had threatened Charles's life. I also
suggested in my letter that the king of France was trying to buy the
city of Dunkirk from King Charles, and that because of the friendly
negotiations then pending, Louis might give heed to our king's request.
In that case, it might be well, I thought, for Hamilton to leave France
at once.

With this urgency in mind, I suggested to Frances and Betty that I
cross to Calais alone, regardless of the weather, leaving them at Dover
till my return. But they would not be left behind, so we all set sail on
a blustery morning and paid for our temerity with a day of suffering. In
Calais we posted our letters, having learned that a messenger would leave
that same day for Paris, and two days later we returned to Dover.

Our journey home was made in the rain, Bettina sleeping with her head on
my shoulder a great part of the way. And I enjoyed the rain even more
than I had enjoyed the sunshine.

We reached London nearly a week before the king's return, so that nothing
was known of our journey at court.

CHAPTER XI

"ALL SUNSHINE MAKES THE DESERT"

Whatever faults Whitehall may have had as a place of residence, dulness
was not among them. There were balls, games with high stakes, theatres,
gossip, scandals, and once in a long while an affair of state to interest
us. In order to interest the court thoroughly, an affair of state must
have involved the getting of money for the privy purse; that is, for the
king's personal use, for out of it the courtesans were fed and gambling
debts were paid.

The time of our Dover journey was one of extreme depletion in the privy
purse. The king had borrowed from every person and every city within the
realm who, by threats or cajolery, could be induced to part with money.
But now he had reached the end of his tether.

When matters were thus in extremis, some one, probably Castlemain,
suggested the sale of England's possessions on the continent, chief of
which was the rich city of Dunkirk, situate on the French side of the
Straits of Dover. This fortified city, within a few leagues of Calais,
had cost t