kind to him and no more." It is a fact, however, that, besides being the occasion of much public scandal, it led to important results; for the Duke of York, whether really jealous, or pretending to be so, threw off all the restraints and appearances of decency in his own intrigues; and the Duchess, finding that she had lost all hold on the affections of her husband, sought to recover it by adapting herself to his views in matters of religion. She entered into private discourse with his priest, and soon declared herself a Roman Catholic.[1]
Ten years after this, the first Duchess of York having died in the interval, Sidney appears again at Court, having obtained from the King a grant, during his life, of the office of Gentleman and Master of the Robes.[2] In 1678 he had the command
- ↑ Burnet mentions a curious fact of this Duchess, that "Morley (Bishop of Winchester) had been her father confessor, and that she practised secret confession to him from the time that she was twelve years old." Mem. de Grammont. Burnet's Hist., Oxf. Ed., i., 394. Reresby's Mem.
- ↑ The patent is a curious one. "He is appointed Master of the Robes, apparel and other necessaries for the use of the King, his heirs, and successors, to receive £5000 a year out of the exchequer, to the end that provisions incident to the place may be paid for more husbandlike, and bought cheap. £4500 to be paid for the maintenance of the place, and to be accounted for annually."—Collins's Life of Sidney.
In writing to his master when in Holland, his steward, Gil-
