.--Schemes for a royal divorce.--Moll Davis and Nell Gwynn.--The
king and the comedian.--Lady Castlemaine abandons herself to great
disorders.--Young Jack Spencer.--The countess intrigues with an
acrobat.--Talk of the town.--The mistress created a duchess.

At this time the kingdom stood in uttermost danger, being brought to
that condition by his majesty's negligence towards its concerns.
The peril was, moreover, heightened from the fact of the king being
impatient to rid himself of those who had the nation's credit at heart,
and sought to uphold its interests. To this end he was led in part by
his own inclinations, and furthermore by his friends' solicitations.
Foremost amongst those with whose services he was anxious to dispense,
were the chancellor, my Lord Clarendon, and the lord lieutenant of
Ireland, his grace the Duke of Ormond.

The king's displeasure against these men, who had served his father
loyally, himself faithfully, and their country honestly, was instigated
through hatred borne them by my Lady Castlemaine. From the first both
had bewailed the monarch's connection with her, and the evil influence
she exercised over him. Accordingly, after the pattern of honest men,
they had set their faces against her.

Not only, as has already been stated, would the chancellor refuse to
let any document bearing her name pass the great seal, but he had often
prevailed with the king to alter resolutions she had persuaded him to
form. And moreover had his lordship sinned in her eyes by forbidding
his wife to visit or hold intercourse with her. These were sufficient
reasons to arouse the hatred and procure the revenge of this malicious
woman, who was now virtually at the head of the kingdom. 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 t