midnight
All that he had accomplished in the service of his King was to be swept into oblivion by the breath of a spiteful wanton . Clarendon swallowed the draught and sought the Queen , upon that odious embassy with whose ends he was so entirely out of sympathy . He used arguments whose hollowness was not more obvious to the Queen than to himself . That industrious and entertaining chronicler of trifles , Mr. Pepys , tells us , scandalized , in his diary that on the following day the talk of the Court was all upon a midnight scene between the royal couple in the privacy of their own apartments , so stormy that the sounds of it were plainly to be heard in the neighbouring chambers . You conceive the poor little woman , smarting under the insult of Charles 's proposal by the mouth of Clarendon , assailing her royal husband , and fiercely upbraiding him with his lack not merely of affection but even of the respect that was her absolute due . And Charles , his purpose set , urged to it by the handsome termagant whom he dared not refuse , stirred out of his indolent good-nature , turning upon her , storming back , and finally threatening her with the greater disgrace of seeing herself pack ed home to Portugal , unless she would submit to the lesser disgrace he thrust upon her here . Whether by these or by other arguments he made his will prevail , prevail it did .