and was so publicly spoken
of, that he knew not how to change his purpose." To these words of
fair seeming the troubled chancellor replied by doubting if the sudden
dismissal of an old servant who had served the crown full thirty years,
without any suggestion of crime, but rather with a declaration of
innocence, would not call his majesty's justice and good nature into
question. He added that men would not know how to serve him, when they
should see it was in the power of three or four persons who had never
done him any notable service to dispose him to ungracious acts. And
finally, he made bold to cast some reflections upon my Lady Castlemaine,
and give his majesty certain warnings regarding her influence.

At this the king, not being well pleased, rose up, and the interview,
which had lasted two hours, terminated. Lord Clarendon tells us so much
concerning his memorable visit, to which Pepys adds a vivid vignette
picture of his departure. When my lord passed from his majesty's
presence into the privy garden, my Lady Castlemaine, who up to that
time had been in bed, "ran out in her smock into her aviary looking into
Whitehall--and thither her woman brought her nightgown--and stood joying
herself at the old man's going away; and several of the gallants of
Whitehall, of which there were many staying to see the chancellor
return, did talk to her in her birdcage--among others Blaneford, telling
her she was the bird of paradise."

A few days after this occurrence the king sent Secretary Morrice to the
chancellor's house, with a warrant under a sign manual to require and
receive the great seal. This Lord Clarendon at once delivered him with
many expressions of duty which he bade the messenger likewise convey his
majesty. And no sooner had Morrice handed the seals to the king,
than Baptist May, keeper of the privy purse, and friend of my Lady
Castlemaine, sought the monarch, and falling upon his knees, kissed his
hand and congratulated him on his riddance of the chancellor. "For now."
said he, availing himself of the liberty Charles permitted his friends,
"you will be king--what you have never been before." Finally, the
chancellor was, through influence of his enemies, impeached in the House
of Commons; and to such length did they pursue him, that he was banished
the kingdom by act of parliament.

His grace the Duke of Ormond was the next minister whom my Lady
Castlemaine, in the strength of her evil influence, sought to un