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The secretary had no mind for such jeremiads, and was dexterous enough to turn the subject by falling into "raillery, which was his best faculty, with which he diverted the King from any further serious reflections." The King and he soon passed to merriment at Clarendon's expense, and made the old jests against the gravity of age, which made no allowance for the infirmities of youth.
Before we enter upon the last stage of Clarendon's ministry, so fateful for the future history of England, it may be well to turn to another aspect of his life, which is not without its use in helping us to estimate his character.
Clarendon had recognized fully that such reparation was due, and had instructed Downing to offer it. The elusive tactics of De Witt, and the armed intervention of De Ruyter, frustrated Clarendon's efforts for a peaceful settlement. Already Clarendon's pronounced inclination for peace had earned for him the ill-will which the Duke of York's habitual sulkiness of temper was so apt to indulge.
The incidents of the war do not belong to Clarendon's life, except as they presented new problems for statesmanship, or gave opportunities for attempting accommodation. At the opening of the war, and in spite of all that hindered efficient work, the fleet was organized upon a scale unknown before.
Clarendon's habitual gravity was increased to sternness. He spoke to the King taking the fullest advantage of the tutelary position in which for the last twenty-five years he had stood to him much as he had spoken when Charles had proposed to make Barbara Palmer a Lady of the Queen's Bedchamber, saving that he was now even more uncompromising. The King was not pleased with him.
The internal evidence appeared to her irresistibly strong: and even in those passages which she knew to be Cecilia's writing, it too plainly appeared that, however playfully, however delicately expressed, there was more of real attachment for Colonel D'Aubigny than Cecilia had ever allowed Helen to believe; and she felt that Cecilia must shrink from General Clarendon's seeing these as her letters, after she had herself assured him that he was her first love.
Burnet, speaking of the Earl of Clarendon's eldest son, who afterwards succeeded him, says: His judgement was not to be much depended on, for he was much carried by vulgar prejudices, and false notions. He was much in the Queen's favour. Swift. Much, much, much. Swift. I suppose it was of gold or silver. Ibid.
Meanwhile Catherine was teaching in Mr. Clarendon's Sunday-school, and attending his prayer-meetings. The more expansive Robert's energies became, the more she suffered, and the more the small daily opportunities for friction multiplied. Soon she could hardly bear to hear him talk about his work, and she never opened the number of the 'Nineteenth Century' which contained his papers.
"But," resumed Lady Cecilia, "I could not do less than ask her here for Clarendon's sake, when I know it pleases him; and she is very estimable, and so I wish to make her love me if I could! But I do not think she will be nearer her point with Mr. Beauclerc, if it is her point, by coming here just now. Granville has eyes as well as ears, and contrasts will strike.
Churchill's state was all she could rely upon or recur to. When her maid Rose arrived from General Clarendon's, she said, that when Lady Cecilia heard of the duel she had been taken very ill, but had since recovered sufficiently to drive out with the general. Miss Clarendon assured Helen there was no danger. "It is too deep a misfortune for Lady Cecilia.
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