Mary declared that she was unwilling to give pain to a sister whom she loved, and in whom she could easily pass over any ordinary fault; but this was a serious matter.

Lady Marlborough must be dismissed.

While she lived at Whitehall her lord would live there.
Was it proper that a man in his situation should be suffered to make the palace of his injured master his home?
Yet so unwilling was His Majesty to deal severely with the worst offenders, that even this had been borne, and might have been borne longer, had not Anne brought the Countess to defy the King and Queen in their own presence chamber.

"It was unkind," Mary wrote, "in a sister; it would have been uncivil in an equal; and I need not say that I have more to claim." The Princess, in her answer, did not attempt to exculpate or excuse Marlborough, but expressed a firm conviction that his wife was innocent, and implored the Queen not to insist on so heartrending a separation.

"There is no misery," Anne wrote, "that I cannot resolve to suffer rather than the thoughts of parting from her." The Princess sent for her uncle Rochester, and implored him to carry her letter to Kensington, and to be her advocate there.