Mendoça returned immediately home, to prevent any suspicions of the cause of his journey on the minds of those who might probably have seen him with the duke; and merely wrote to the conspirators that he had been on a hunting party, and had found the game for a long time very shy, but that at last he had had good sport. In a few days afterwards he returned to Lisbon, where he acquainted his friends with all that had passed; and the duke wishing to see Pinto, he set off immediately, having first received the necessary instructions for informing his master of the nature of their plan, and the means of putting it into execution. Pinto also acquainted him with the divisions which had taken place at the court of Lisbon, where the vice-queen complained in the bitterest terms of the pride and insolence of Vasconcellos; declaring that she could no longer permit the dispatches from the court of Spain being first addressed to him, whilst dignified by a vague title, she remained wholly powerless. Her complaints indeed were the more justly founded, as being a princess of superior merit, she was in every way capable of exercising the authority committed to her charge. This she perfectly knew, but she did not so easily perceive that the distinguished qualities of her head and heart were the principal reasons of her being allowed so small a share in the government. Pinto did not fail to remark on this occasion, that nothing could be more favourable to his master's designs than this misunderstanding, since the disputes in the palace would take up the attention of the Spanish ministers, and not allow them time to attend to his proceedings.