The Scottish lord was sadly beaten down, and confessed his disgraceful defeat by requesting her Majesty to be good enough to keep what had passed at the interview as a secret. He added, in French, ‘Madame, le Roi est trompé et vous êtes trahie’--‘The King is deceived and you are betrayed.’ He had previously alluded to Lords Bolingbroke and Carteret, as men worthy indeed to be trusted, and who had the honour and glory of the kingdom at heart. These names, with such testimonial attached to them, especially excited the royal indignation. ‘Bolingbroke and Carteret!’ exclaimed Caroline. ‘You may tell them from me, if you will, that they are men of no parts; that they are said to be two of the greatest liars in any country; and that my observation and experience confirm what is said of them.’[10] Stair reiterated his request that the incidents of the private interview should not be further spoken of. Caroline consented; and she must have felt some contempt for him as he also promised that he would keep them secret, giving knowledge thereof to no man. ‘Well?’ said Carteret, enquiringly, as he met with Lord Stair after this notable interview with Caroline. ‘Well!’ exclaimed Lord Stair, ‘I have staggered her!’ A pigmy might as well have boasted of having staggered Thalestris and Hippolyta. A short time subsequently Lord Hervey was with the Queen, in her apartment, purveying to her, as he was wont to do, the floating news of the day. Among other things, he told her of an incident in a debate in parliament upon the army supplies. In the course of the discussion, Carteret had observed that, at the period when Cardinal Mazarin was ruining France by his oppressive measures, a great man sought an audience of the Queen (Anne of Austria, mother of the young King Louis XIV.), and after explaining to her the perils of the times, ended with the remark that she was maintaining a man at the helm who deserved to be rowing in the galleys. Caroline immediately knew that Lord Stair had revealed what he had petitioned her to keep secret; and feeling that she was thereby exonerated from observing further silence, her Majesty took the opportunity to ‘out with it all,’ as she said in not less choice French: ‘J’ai pris la première occasion d’égosiller tout.’ Reverting to Carteret’s illustration she observed that the ‘great man’ noticed by him was Condé, a man who never had a word to say against Mazarin as long as the cardinal fed a rapacity which could never be satisfied. This was, in some degree, Stair’s position with regard to Walpole. ‘Condé, in his interview with the Queen of France,’ observed the well-read Queen of England, ‘had for his object to impose upon her and France, by endeavouring to persuade her that his private resentments were only a consequence of his zeal for the public service.’