This reserve, and the evident collusion between the parties, roused the suspicions of the Duchess, and she instantly resolved to commence a strict examination into the relative position, and the ultimate end and object of the parties thus implicated in what she deemed a conspiracy against her power and peace. Fortunately for her biographers, she has left ample explanations, carefully preserved, of all those passages of her life which relate to her ultimate dismissal from the Queen’s service. In a letter which many years afterwards she is said to have addressed to Bishop Burnet, she gives a clear statement, which she corroborates by copies of all the correspondence which passed between herself and the Queen relative to the great affair of her life. It was not long before the Duchess, on instituting an inquiry among her friends, discovered that the Queen had even gone herself secretly to her new favourite’s marriage in the “Scotch doctor’s chamber,” a circumstance which was discovered by a boy, who belonged to one of the under servants, and who saw her Majesty go thither alone.[100] The marriage had also been confided to several persons of distinction. It was easy to be informed of that which every body but herself knew; and, in less than a week, the indignant Duchess discovered that her cousin was an “absolute favourite,” and that when the marriage was solemnised at Dr. Arbuthnott’s lodging, her Majesty had called for a round sum out of the privy purse. To this intelligence was added the still more startling information, that hours of confidential communication were daily passed by Mrs. Masham in the Queen’s apartments, whilst Prince George, who was now a confirmed invalid, was asleep; but who, in spite of the advantage taken of his slumbers, had been one of the illustrious confidants on this occasion. The Duchess could now trace the whole system of deception which had been carried on to her injury for a considerable time; her relative and former dependent being the chief agent—her sovereign the accomplice. She could account for the interest which Harley had now acquired at court by means of this new instrument. She could explain to her astonished and irritated mind certain incidents, which had seemed of little moment when they occurred, but which afforded a mortifying confirmation of all that she had learned. “My reflection,” she says, “brought to my mind many passages, which had seemed odd and unaccountable, but had left no impression of suspicion or jealousy.[101] Particularly I remembered that a long while before this, being with the Queen, (to whom I had gone very privately from my lodgings to the bedchamber,) on a sudden this woman, not knowing I was there, came in with the boldest and gayest air possible; but upon sight of me stopped, and immediately changing her manner, and making a most solemn courtesy, ‘_Did_ your Majesty ring?’ and then went out again.”