Page:The Queens of England.djvu/530

 480 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. on a charge of high treason at the bar of the House of Com- mons by Oates, but the stories invented against her, and the blunders of the accuser, not only failed, but saved the life of Sir George Wakeman, the queen's physician, who was tried on the charge of accepting a bribe of 15,000/. to poison Charles. Moreover, when the Commons petitioned the king to remove Catherine from Whitehall, and send her attendants from the country, he simply observed, "They think I have a mind for a new wife ; but, for all that, I will not stand by and see an in- nocent woman abused." These facts afford evidence of some redeeming points even in the profligate Charles the Second. The death of the Earl of Ossory, who had succeeded Don Francisco de Melo, in 1676, as Lord Chamberlain to the queen, called forth the following amiable letter from Catherine, ad- dressed by her own hand to the Duke of Ormond, father of the earl. The letter is yet preserved among the Ormond papers, indorsed, "Received, 3d September, 1681." My Lord Duke of Ormond, I do not think anything I can say will lessen your trouble for the death of my Lord Ossory, who is so greate a loss to the King and the publicke, as well as to my own particular service, that I know not how to express it ; but every day will teach me, by shewing me the want I shall find of so true a friend. But I must have so much pity upon you as to say but little on so sad a subject, conjuring you to believe that I am. My Lord Duke of Ormond, Your very affectionate friend, "Catharina Regina." When Charles, who had been struck with apoplexy, was on his deathbed, February, 1685, the queen sent to request permis- sion to attend him, and to implore forgiveness for any offenses which she had from ignorance committed against him. x affectionate answer was returned by Charles, who said he had nothing to forgive but had to demand her pardon for the many wrongs he had done her. Catherine was admitted to the bed- side of her husband, but was soon compelled to retire by the presence of the notorious Duchess of Portsmouth. The grief of Catherine, the reality of which might perhaps have been doubted at the dissolution of such a tie as this, was visible to those who attended to condole with her on the mournful oc- casion, and who were received by the widowed queen in an apartment lighted only with tapers, and the walls of which were hung with funereal black from the ceiling to the floor. Indeed, although Catherine survived her husband twentv-one years, she