“Only,” interrupted Madame, “it is possible I should fail. The king of England has dangerous counselors.”
“Counselors, do you say?”
“Precisely. If, by chance, your majesty had any intention—I am only supposing so—of asking Charles II. his alliance in a war—”
“A war?”
“Yes; well! then the king’s counselors, who are in number seven—Mademoiselle Stewart, Mademoiselle Wells, Mademoiselle Gwyn, Miss Orchay, Mademoiselle Zunga, Miss Davies, and the proud Countess of Castlemaine—will represent to the king that war costs a great deal of money; that it is better to give balls and suppers at Hampton Court than to equip ships of the line at Portsmouth and Greenwich.”
“And then your negotiations will fail?”
“Oh! those ladies cause all negotiations to fall through which they don’t make themselves.”
“Do you know the idea that has struck me, sister?”
“No; inform me what it is.”
“It is that, searching well around you, you might perhaps find a female counselor to take with you to your brother, whose eloquence might paralyze the ill-will of the seven others.”