Courting Her Highness_ The Story of Queen Anne - Jean Plaidy [99]
“But this is certainly an ill practice.”
“No doubt of it. We’ll have Madame Sarah taken up for bribery and corruption yet.”
“She must be quite furious.”
Harley laid his hand on Abigail’s arm and she lifted her face to his. Sometimes she thought he was fully aware of the effect he had on her. She was fascinated and yet in a way repelled, but the fascination was the strong emotion.
“You allow her to intimidate you, cousin.”
“She is an intimidating person.”
“Don’t forget each day you grow farther and farther from her reach.”
“I believe she would still have the power to dismiss me … if she should decide to do so.”
“Then we must make sure she is robbed of that power as soon as possible. This affair might well help to divest her of some. She has been telling the people of St. Albans that Mr. Gape and his kind would unhinge the Government; she has paid one man twenty guineas; unfortunately there was no mention in writing that the gift was in exchange for his help in the election.”
“She is the most indiscreet woman in the world, but it seems everyone is afraid of her.”
“It will not always be so, little cousin. This pleases me. Let us hope that she has been even more indiscreet than usual and put something in writing which can be used against her.”
In spite of Sarah’s indiscretions on that occasion nothing was proved against her; but her enemies—and in particular the Tories—were loud in their condemnation of her.
And she was as bold as ever. She assured herself that she had done much to procure the Whig support which Marlborough needed to prolong the war. She wrote to the Duke that she wanted more news of what he was doing and assuring him that he could rely on her to look after their interests at home.
She was truly at the peak of her success; she had tried to turn the Queen towards the Whigs and had succeeded, perhaps because the Tories themselves had helped to arouse Anne’s animosity. They had not taken into account the fact that the Queen who must now seriously begin to think of her successor was more inclined to favour the House of Stuart than that of Hanover. Anne, a sentimentalist at heart, had never ceased to be troubled by the manner in which she had treated her father; her stepbrother was now at St. Germains and what could salve her conscience better than making him her heir; if he would swear to support the Church of England that was all that would be asked of him. She was a Jacobite for reasons of conscience. But the Tories declaring that the Church of England would be in jeopardy if the Stuart was brought back wanted to make advances to Princess Sophia of Hanover and even suggested that she should be invited to pay a visit to England.
The idea of receiving her in England was repulsive to Anne; and when Nottingham suggested in the House of Lords that this must be done for fear the Queen should live till she did not know what she did, and be like a child in the hands of others, Anne was moved to an anger rare with her. To suggest that she might become a victim of senile decay and to do so in one of her Houses of Parliament was too much to be borne.
Had not Mrs. Freeman warned her of Nottingham and the Tories? Although she was angry with Nottingham it was such a pleasure to be in agreement with Sarah over politics.
She wrote to her, for she was very happy to be back on the old terms of friendship when letters frequently passed between them:
“I believe, dear Mrs. Freeman and I shall not disagree as we have formerly done; for I am sensible of the services these people have done me that you have a good opinion of, and will countenance them, and am thoroughly convinced of the malice and insolence of them that you have always been speaking against.”
So Sarah was back in high favour; and it seemed clear that although she might stay