Page:Catherine of Bragança, infanta of Portugal, & queen-consort of England.djvu/82



E MELLO heard with joy that the King would at last receive him. He recovered immediately from the illness which had been caused by anxiety and mortification, and waited on Charles with alacrity. Charles seems to have opened the subject graciously, and de Mello enlarged on the dowry again, evidently aware that it was his one strong card in the game.

"The Queen-Regent," he said, "having resolved not to touch the public money that was raised for carrying on the war" (with Spain) "had sold her own jewels and plate, and made up the deficiency by borrowing plate and jewels of the churches and monasteries, by which means she had the whole sum ready, sealed up in bags, and deposited where no one could take it to apply to any other purpose." This gives a curious and educational hint of the times! De Mello added ** that the fleet which was to be sent for the Princess " (from England) "might go first to Tangier and take possession of it, Her Majesty having removed the old governor who was "humorous'" (perverse) "and sent out another on whose complacence she could depend, to deliver the place into His Majesty's hands. She had taken similar precautions with regard to Bombay, and furthermore, to give the greatest proof that was possible of her