And I enjoyed the rain even more
than I had enjoyed the sunshine.
We reached London nearly a week before the king's return, so that nothing
was known of our journey at court.
CHAPTER XI
"ALL SUNSHINE MAKES THE DESERT"
Whatever faults Whitehall may have had as a place of residence, dulness
was not among them. There were balls, games with high stakes, theatres,
gossip, scandals, and once in a long while an affair of state to interest
us. In order to interest the court thoroughly, an affair of state must
have involved the getting of money for the privy purse; that is, for the
king's personal use, for out of it the courtesans were fed and gambling
debts were paid.
The time of our Dover journey was one of extreme depletion in the privy
purse. The king had borrowed from every person and every city within the
realm who, by threats or cajolery, could be induced to part with money.
But now he had reached the end of his tether.
When matters were thus in extremis, some one, probably Castlemain,
suggested the sale of England's possessions on the continent, chief of
which was the rich city of Dunkirk, situate on the French side of the
Straits of Dover. This fortified city, within a few leagues of Calais,
had cost the English nation heavily in blood and gold to gain, and still
more heavily to hold, but its value to England commercially and
politically was beyond measure.
Since Queen Mary had lost Calais, Dunkirk was the only important foothold
England had on continental soil; therefore it was almost as dear to the
English people as the city of London itself.
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