Almost his first move as Chancellor caused irritation to those forming part of the Royal Household. Owing to Lord Ashley’s own resignation from the Guards and to the absence of Captain Stanley Mortimer and the present disability of Captain Ralph Swords, there existed one permanent and two temporary vacancies in the Guards corps. The ordinary staff appointment lay usually with the War Office, but in the case of appointments to the Guards the selection was made by His Majesty himself from a list of officers specially distinguished and submitted by the Minister of War. It had leaked out--in that mysterious way that things will leak out at Court--that Lord Ashley, in his position of confidential adviser to the King, had interfered in this instance with the list submitted, as far as two of the appointments, at least, were concerned. The officer selected to fill the permanent vacancy was Captain Farquharson, an officer of excellent family with a gallant service record. His name had been on the list submitted by the Minister of War and his appointment gave general satisfaction at Court. The other two appointments, to fill the temporary vacancies, were those of Captain Haslam and Captain Bagley. These two names were not in the list furnished by the Minister of War and neither officer had won any special distinction in the service. Both had served in the field, and that which was chiefly known concerning Captain Bagley was that he had at one time been tried by court martial for the summary execution of certain Cossacks under circumstances--if the charges advanced were true--of exceptional brutality. True, the charges had not been fully proven and he had been acquitted, but a lingering suspicion hovered over his name. Neither of these men was of the character usually appointed to the Guards. The Court grumbled, but Lord Ashley was not the manner of man to be perturbed over mere grumblings and the Court was forced to console itself with the reflection that the two unpopular appointments were, after all, only likely to prove temporary ones.