He at the same time promised to allow her a large pension from his privy purse.

Catharine, clever, strongminded, intrepid, and conscious of her power, refused to stir.

In a few months it began to be whispered that the services of Chiffinch were again employed, and that the mistress frequently passed and repassed through that private door through which Father Huddleston had borne the host to the bedside of Charles.

The King's Protestant ministers had, it seems, conceived a hope that their master's infatuation for this woman might cure him of the more pernicious infatuation which impelled him to attack their religion.

She had all the talents which could qualify her to play on his feelings, to make game of his scruples, to set before him in a strong light the difficulties and dangers into which he was running headlong.
Rochester, the champion of the Church, exerted himself to strengthen her influence.