He gives the story that James, after the time-honoured manner of the hero of melodrama, had signed this promise with his blood, that Anne had carefully locked it up but that the Duke had found means to get this important paper “out of her cabinet,” that the King wanted his brother to marry her but that the latter “will not.” This remark about the King, by the way, puts the account out of court. Sir John Reresby, more good-natured but scarcely better informed, says the marriage or betrothal probably took place either in January or February 1660, soon after James returned to Flanders on the failure of Booth’s rising. We have, however, much more definite evidence. In the deposition on oath of the parties, to be noticed presently, the word contract is certainly used, and the expression had to be defined. We shall see in what manner this was done.

It is clear that the King very quickly made up his mind to countenance the marriage. He said to Hyde himself that his daughter “was a Woman of a great Wit and excellent parts, and would have a great power with his brother, and that he knew she had an entire obedience for him her Father, who he knew would always give her good counsel by which he was confident that naughty people which had too much credit with his brother and which had so often misled him, would be no more able to corrupt him, but that she would prevent all ill and unreasonable attempts, and therefore he again confessed that he was glad of it.”[[118]]

[118]. “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon: Continuation,” by himself.

This was, of course, a tribute to the Chancellor himself. Charles II. was fully conscious of how much he had owed for many years to the counsels and service of Hyde, and how important they were likely to prove in the future; therefore his chief anxiety, at that time at any rate, was to bind the latter’s interests to his own at all costs. He also in the daily conference with the Chancellor on which he insisted, used the common-sense argument that the latter “must behave himself wisely, for that the thing was remediless”—in other words, that what was done could not be undone, a highly characteristic attitude on the part of the speaker.

But if the King was prepared to be reconciled to the match, no other member of the royal family could be said to tolerate the idea, certainly not the queen-mother, who was almost beside herself with fury. Anne’s late mistress, the Princess Royal, was also deeply incensed, resenting the affront all the more from the favour she had lavished for so many years on her maid of honour. The storm so evoked raged with more or less violence through the autumn. The wrathful letters written by his mother, on the first intelligence, James had shown to Anne, and before he set out to meet his elder sister, who was on her way to England, he came openly to Worcester House, and taking the Chancellor aside, said to him in a whisper that “he knew that he had heard of the matter, that when he came back he would give full satisfaction, and that he was not to be offended with his daughter.”

What answer Hyde chose to make on this occasion we do not know, nor how much he suspected, but the “matter,” as the Duke called it, had already been made absolutely sure.

Worcester House had been the scene, not only of romance, of love-trysts, of secret meetings on summer nights, but it had witnessed a union which was to have far-reaching results for the realm of England.

On the night of 3rd September 1660, James, Duke of York, and Anne Hyde, did for the second time plight their faith either to other.[[119]]

[119]. “Memoirs of the Court of England under the Reign of the Stuarts,” John Heneage Jesse; Macpherson’s “Original Papers”; “Memoirs for History of Anne of Austria,” Madame de Motteville, 1725.

The officiating priest was the Duke’s chaplain, Dr Crowther, Lord Ossory (the son of Ormonde) giving away the bride, and another witness was present in the person of the maid Ellen Stroud, who had so often connived at the Duke’s visits, and who now, with the ease of long practice, smuggled these persons into the house. Lady Hyde was certainly not there, though it is quite possible that she was aware of the transaction.[[120]]