Read The Queen's Favourites aka Courting Her Highness (v5) for Free Online Page B

when Charles died he remained one of James’s most trusted ministers and was appointed Chamberlain to James’s Queen, Mary Beatrice. He was one of those Tories who had remained faithful to James longer than most; and when he had seen that the exile of James was inevitable, he had voted for a Regency. His fidelity to James had never really wavered, and when Marlborough, deciding that he could not satisfy his ambition through William, had turned to the “King across the Water,” this had made a bond between him and Godolphin. Like Marlborough, Godolphin had wished to show his friendship with James while at the same time he feigned a friendship with William; it was a case of waiting to see which side could be the one an ambitious man should be on; and because of William’s undoubted qualities it seemed certain that he was the one whom they must serve—but at the same time they were watchful of what was happening at the Court of St. Germains where the exile lived with his Queen and the son whose birth had caused such a controversy in England and who was acknowledged by Louis of France as the Prince of Wales.
    Godolphin’s name, with that of Marlborough, had been mentioned in the case of Sir John Fenwick; and although neither he nor Marlborough had been brought to trial over that affair, Godolphin had been forced to resign. This was the state of affairs when Sarah had the idea that the two families united by marriage could form the nucleus of a ruling party which would of course be dominated by the Marlboroughs.
    In his youth Sidney had made a romantic marriage. He had fallen in love with Margaret Blagge, one of the most beautiful and virtuous young women at Court. Margaret, a maid of honour to Anne Hyde, who was Duchess of York and mother to the Princesses Mary and Anne, had taken part in John Crowne’s Calista which had been written that the Princess Mary might perform and make her debut at Court. Although Margaret had believed dancing and play-acting was sinful and had been forced to play a part in this, she had scored a success as Diana the Goddess of chastity. Sidney watching her had fallen more deeply in love than ever before. Margaret seemed to him unique; for to find a girl who was virtuous at the Court of King Charles was rare.
    He often thought of those days of courtship, the secret marriage, the friendship with John Evelyn, the writer, who, recognizing Margaret’s rare qualities, loved her as though she were his daughter. A strange interlude for an ambitious man, to discover that there was a life which did not depend on gaining advantages over other men, fighting for power, enviously watching the progress of rivals—days which later he was to look back on as a dream. In due course they announced their marriage; he remembered the house they had lived in, in Scotland Yard near the palace of Whitehall, during the days when they had been awaiting the birth of their first child.
    It was not wise to brood on those days; there was too much sadness in nostalgia for a past which was lost for ever; but he could not stop thinking of how they had walked in the gardens, always talking of the child. There had come that September day—September days had ever after seemed tinged with sadness for him—just as the green leaves were touched with brown; their edges dry and shrivelled ready to fall from the trees to be trampled underfoot or swept up and destroyed, as his happiness had been. But how was he to guess then that soon his joy in life would be gone as surely as those bright leaves upon the trees.
    Young Francis had been born on the third day of September—a healthy boy, which was what they had secretly longed for, although neither of them had admitted it. They had stoutly declared to each other that the sex of the child was unimportant, lest the other should think either one would be disappointed.
    But a boy brought that moment of triumph. For two days they were at the peak of happiness. Then she took fever, and a week