All the humiliation of the duchess served only to render herself the more contemptible.

The queen heard her without exhibiting the least sign of emotion, and all she would vouchsafe, was a repetition of these words--"You desired no answer, and you shall have none;" alluding to an expression in a letter she had received from the duchess.

As an additional mortification to the ministry, the office of lord chamberlain was transferred from the duke of Kent to the duke of Shrewsbury, who had lately voted with the tories, and maintained an intimacy of correspondence with Mr.Harley.

The interest of the duke of Marlborough was not even sufficient to prevent the dismissal of his own son-in-law, the earl of Sunderland, from the post of secretary of state, in which he was succeeded by lord Dartmouth.
The queen was generally applauded for thus asserting her just prerogative, and setting herself free from an arbitrary cabal, by which she had been so long kept in dependence.

The duke of Beaufort went to court on this occasion, and told her majesty he was extremely glad that he could now salute her queen in reality.