Very early during the intercourse, ‘the busy and speculative politicians of the antechambers, who knew everything, but knew everything wrong,’ imagined that the lady’s influence must be all-powerful, seeing that her admirer paid to her the homage of devoting to her the best hours of his day. She did not reject solicitations, we are told, because she was unwilling to have it supposed that she was without power. She neither rejected solicitations nor bound herself by promises, but hinted at difficulties; and, in short, as Chesterfield well expresses it, she used ‘all that trite cant of those who with power will not, and of those who without power cannot, grant the requested favours.’ So far from being able to make peers, she was not even successful in a well-meant attempt to procure a place of 200_l._ a-year ‘for John Gay, a very poor and honest man, and no bad poet, only because he was a poet, which the King considered as a mechanic.’ Mrs. Howard had little influence, either in the house of the Prince, or, when she became Countess of Suffolk, in that of the King. Caroline, we are told, ‘had taken good care that Lady Suffolk’s apartment should not lead to power and favour; and from time to time made her feel her inferiority by hindering the King from going to her room for three or four days, representing it as the seat of a political faction.’ CHAPTER III. THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS ANNE. Violent opposition to the King by Prince Frederick--Readings at Windsor Castle--The Queen’s patronage of Stephen Duck --His melancholy end--Glance at passing events--Precipitate flight of Dr. Nichols--Princess Anne’s determination to get a husband--Louis XV. proposed as a suitor; negotiation broken off --The Prince of Orange’s offer accepted--Ugly and deformed-- The King and Queen averse to the union--Dowry settled on the Princess--Anecdote of the Duchess of Marlborough--Illness of the bridegroom--Ceremonies attendant on the marriage-- Mortification of the Queen--The public nuptial chamber--Offence given to the Irish peers--The Queen and Lady Suffolk--Homage paid by the Princess to her deformed husband--Discontent of Prince Frederick--His anxiety not unnatural--Congratulatory addresses by the Lords and Commons--Spirited conduct of the Queen --Lord Chesterfield--Agitations on Walpole’s celebrated Excise Scheme--Lord Stair delegated to remonstrate with the Queen-- Awkward performance of his mission--Sharply rebuked by the Queen --Details of the interview--The Queen’s success in overcoming the King’s antipathy to Walpole--Comments of the populace--Royal interview with a bishop.