Part 16 (2/2)
Sarah had made her grief an excuse for staying away from Court, but when news reached her in St. Albans that the Lords had thrown out the Occasional Conformity Bill, and that the Tories finding themselves beaten had created four new Tory peers, she was incensed.
Marl was a Tory by instinct, but much as she loved and admired him she had a greater respect for her own views and these were growing more and more Whig. Marl ought to see that the Tories were against the prosecution of the war which he himself so firmly supported. The fact was that he was so occupied in Flanders that he could not see clearly what was happening at home and it was her duty to take command on the home front.
Four new Tory peers in order to get a Bill pa.s.sed through the Lords! Sarah was not going to stand aside and see that happen. She was going to demand that there be at least one new Whig peer.
This was the best tonic to grief. Sarah left St. Albans at once for St. James's.
Storming into the Queen's apartments she found Abigail Hill seated at the harpsichord, and Anne dozing pleasantly in her chair.
Abigail stopped playing as she entered and turning saw the look of delight on the Queen's face.
”My dearest, dearest Mrs. Freeman!”
”Yes, Mrs. Morley I am here!”
”So welcome! So welcome!”
Abigail watched the fond embrace. Anne was almost in tears.
”Do not think that my thoughts have not been with you all through this long and trying time. Do not think that I would not have been at St. Albans had you allowed me to come.”
”I was so filled with grief that I thought I should lose my reason-and so did those about me. Mr. Freeman even thought of giving up everything ... everything to be with me.”
”Dear, dear Mr. Freeman! What a comfort. I understand your loss and your great solace. How alike our lives are, dear Mrs. Freeman.”
Sarah grunted with something of the old freedom of expression. If there was one thing she found hard to tolerate it was comparing her handsome brilliant genius of a Marl with that lazy witless Danish Prince.
”Well, now I am here,” she said, ”and I wonder how Mrs. Morley has been faring in my absence.”
”Each day longing for our reunion.”
”When I heard the disturbing news I thought I could no longer stay away.”
”The disturbing news, my dear Mrs. Freeman?”
”This matter of new Tory peers being created to get the Conformity Bill through.”
”Oh, I am sure my ministers know what is right, Mrs. Freeman.”
”But I, Mrs. Morley, am far from sure.”
Anne gave a little gasp. Being absent from Sarah for so long she had not heard anyone contradict her so forcibly during that time, and when it happened it was a shock.
Sarah was aware of Abigail Hill still seated at the harpsichord.
”You may go,” she said.
Abigail's eyes were on the Queen and Anne knew that she was thinking: Is it your wish that I should obey the d.u.c.h.ess?
Anne nodded dismissal and Abigail went away. What was the use of thinking she had a firm place in the Queen's affections when Sarah only had to appear to make her understand how insecure that place was. Sarah could say this very day: Dismiss Hill. And Anne would meekly obey. Would she? She might put up a small resistance but it would soon be overridden.
Now this matter of the Occasional Conformity Bill. What would be the outcome? As far as Abigail could see, the greatest controversies in the country were concerned with religion; and the trouble over the Conformity Bill was an example of this. The Test Act had demanded that all public servants partake in communion in accordance with the rites of the Church of England when appointed to their posts; after that they might attend at intervals or not at all, but go to the services they preferred. This Act pa.s.sed in the time of Charles II was typical of that monarch's desire to placate two schools of thought at the same time. Occasional Conformity was all that was needed. The Tories had wanted to abolish this act and in its place set up another which was far less tolerant. This was the Occasional Conformity Act and would impose large fines on any person who took office and performed an act of conformity and afterwards attended a dissenting service. A second visit would make the offender liable to even heavier fines and banned from his office for three years.
Anne was a High Tory, a fervent churchwoman; and she had been convinced by her Tory Government that the Act of Conformity was necessary to the welfare of the state. Strangely enough the Lords had thrown out the Bill because William III had been a Whig and during his reign he had created a large number of Low Church Bishops.
And it was this act of creating four new Tory peers in order to pa.s.s the Bill through the Lords which had brought Sarah's Whiggish principles into the fore and sent her hurrying to Court.
As Abigail left the Queen and the d.u.c.h.ess together she was not thinking so much of the rights and wrongs of the Bill as to the power which Sarah held over Anne. What happened now would be significant. Sarah was not only pitting herself against the Queen but against the Tory House of Commons.
As soon as the door shut on Abigail Sarah turned to the Queen.
”These matters are of too great an importance to be discussed before servants,” she said.
”Hill is most discreet.”
”I know it. It was for that reason I brought her to you. And I can see that she is giving satisfaction.”
”Such a good creature!” The Queen settled happily into her chair. How much more pleasant to talk of the virtues of dear Hill, for whom she had to be so grateful to her dearest Mrs. Freeman, than politics.
But Sarah of course had not come to discuss serving women.
”I confess, Mrs. Morley, that I was most disturbed. If men are going to be created to pa.s.s laws what are we coming to.”
”It has been done before....”
”It may have been done before! You think that a good reason for repeating an iniquity? Mayhem and murder have been done before, Mrs. Morley, but that does not mean it is good and reasonable and right to do them again.”
”Mrs. Freeman misunderstands me.”
”I misunderstand nothing! This Conformity Bill has been thrown out of the Lords ... so your ministers have advised you to create four new Tory peers in order to get it through. It must not be.”
”It is already being done.”
”I'll not have it!”
Anne was astonished. She had longed to see Mrs. Freeman at Court, and now she had come there was this trouble. She had no intention of arguing. She hated argument. But even dearest Mrs. Freeman could not decide matters of state policy merely by demanding to do so.
”Well, Mrs. Freeman, come and sit beside me,” said Anne. ”I want to hear all your news.”
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