France, and repaired with his brother, Sir George Douglas, to the English Court, preparatory to his return to his own country. Margaret, whose honour had already once been compromised, had again, in the first giddiness of her success, committed herself in such a manner as to make the reappearance of her husband the worst of misfortunes. She had surrounded herself with a circle of frivolous young men, the most worthless of whom, Henry Stewart, afterwards Lord Methuen, she had chosen as her peculiar favourite. Careless alike of her good name, her interest, or even of ordinary decency, she dared to write to her brother, threatening that, if Angus was again forced upon her, she would turn elsewhere for help before she would allow him 'to trouble her in her living.'[1] She affected to colour her objections with stories of Angus's injuries to herself, and of his unpopularity with the nobles. Her liaison with Stewart being as yet a secret from the world, the English Government did not understand the motive of her urgency: they were anxious to avoid fresh complications or difficulties; and Wolsey replied that, if the return of Angus was so distasteful to her, he would find some pretext to detain him in London till affairs had settled down into a more regular train. At the particular moment both Henry and his minister were desirous to be on good terms with the queen-mother, in the hope that through her influence they might obtain possession of the persons of the two imprisoned bishops,
- ↑ State Pagers, vol. iv. p. 83.
