Reverdil, who was the Queen's friend, did his best to patch up the quarrel. He accompanied the King on his tour through Holstein, and urged him to write affectionate letters to his wife. He pointed out that, considering the state of the Queen's health, there was need to indulge her in her whims and fancies. Christian, who was still smarting from the interference of Madame de Plessen, consented with an ill grace, and only on condition that Reverdil composed the letters and he merely copied them. These letters pacified Matilda; she was ignorant of their real authorship, and replied with affection. The King did not distinguish himself during his tour or increase the loyalty of the duchy. He offended, by his frivolity and recklessness, the old Holstein nobility, who, if somewhat barbarous, were very strict in their ideas of what a King should be. [Illustration: EDWARD, DUKE OF YORK, BROTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA. _From the Painting by G. H. Every._] While Christian VII. was absent in Holstein Matilda heard of the death of her favourite brother, Edward Duke of York, a gallant, high-spirited youth. The Duke chose the navy as a profession, and if his promotion in it was rapid (he was promoted to be a rear-admiral at the age of twenty-three), he showed himself to be a brave sailor, and distinguished himself under Howe at the bombardment of Cherbourg. After the capture of the town the Duke gave the French ladies a ball. "He told them he was too young to know what was good breeding in France, and therefore he should behave as if meaning to please in England, and he kissed them all."[82] The young Prince was a great favourite with the ladies. His first love was the beautiful and witty Charlotte, Countess of Essex. He then transferred his affections to the even more beautiful Duchess of Richmond, sister-in-law of Lady Sarah Lennox. But the most serious of all his love affairs was his passion for Lady Mary Coke, a young widow, who found herself at an early age "the envy of her sex; in the possession of youth, health, wealth, wit, beauty and liberty". The young and ardent Duke seems to have given her a promise of marriage, for during his lifetime she always spoke of him to her friends as her betrothed, and after his death displayed immoderate grief. The Duke's numerous love affairs and his constant pursuit of pleasure naturally involved him in money difficulties. The Princess-Dowager of Wales declined to supplement her second son's allowance, and often lamented his extravagance, but George III. was fond of his volatile brother, and occasionally helped him, though it was against his strict principles to do so. One day the Duke went to St. James's in a state of the greatest dejection, and, when he saw the King, sighed heavily. The King asked him why he was so low-spirited. "How can I be otherwise," said the Duke, "pressed as I am by creditors and without a penny to pay them?" The King, much affected, pressed a thousand pound note into his brother's hand.