Page:The Queens of England.djvu/529

CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA. 470, Another of Waller's poems is called, "Tea commanded by her Majesty"; and he wrote an epigram, "Upon a card which her Majesty tore at ombre," which, however, has not much point in it. Catherine never interfered in politics nor aimed at forming any party in her own behalf ; indeed, the mere fact of her favor- ing any individual was sure to call forth the king's displeasure, from his natural love of contradiction. Edward Montague, son of Lord Manchester, was disgraced' and turned out of court simply because he had obtained the queen's notice ; for though Charles had no fears of Catherine's indiscretion or dereliction of duty in any case, he would not allow her to acquire any in- fluence. The profligate Buckingham desiring to give some ex- cuse for a divorce, that Charles might be able to marry Miss Stewart, offered to carry off Catherine, but the king with much honor rejected the proposal, saying, "It was a wicked thing to make a poor lady miserable, only because she was his wife and had no children, which was not her fault." The conduct of Catherine indeed placed her above suspicion even in this the most dissolute court in Europe, and the only subjects on which she was open to satire from enemies, were her Papist education and inordinate love of dancing. One of the poetical productions referring to this taste of Catherine, called "The Queen's Ball," by Andrew Marvel, was excessively ill-natured, and makes al- lusion to a habit of putting jewels in her mouth. After accusing poor Catherine of bad dancing, and observing on the king him- self, who would have his wife to have his crown, the rhymes run politely on with the remark — See in her mouth a sparkling diamond shine, The first good thing that e'er came from that mine ! Catherine, though she might give occasion to much satire, never incurred blame, and when a divorce was seriously agi- tated, and was even discussed in the House of Lords, it was the voice of Charles himself that put a stop to the affair, by say- ing, that "if his conscience would allow him to divorce the queen, it would suffer him to dispatch her out of the world." He however tried without success to induce her to enter a nun- nery. Again Charles took the part of his unoffending queen when she was accused by the wretches Oates and Bedloe of a conspiracy against his life. Catherine was actually arraigned