so while he was gone, john eaton and margaret o'neill timberlake would go to social functions together, and rumors started to spread that they were having an affair. well, then john timberlake committed suicide. and the account was that he had slit his own throat because he found out that his wife and his best friend, john eaton, were having an affair. now, whether that's true or not, -- he did kill himself, but whether it was because of the affair, the alleged affair, we don't know. but -- so, margaret eaton is now -- margaret o'neill timberlake is now a widow. and less than a year after her husband commits suicide, she marries john eaton, the man she was allegedly having an affair with. so all of this happens before jackson becomes president. well, jackson appoints eaton to be secretary of war and washington society is aghast that jackson has appointed this man, who was having an affair with this woman they consider a whore, and they used that word. so jackson appoints eaton, sees him as a very close, loyal friend, wants him to be in his cabinet, and he defends eaton and margaret ove

and the head of eaton says, where is st. john? and the headmaster responds and says, what eaton used to be, trading ministers with the king. in other words, for the catholic king. for england before the reformation, and he develops this tremendous admiration and affection for british catholics. these are a persecuted minority that cannot vote for parliament until the 1850s, even beyond that. yet they are the descendents of the ancient kings of britain. he knew a good deal. so all the time they were kind of exiled to their own land, and -- but they had ten children that their own little plate sal system and reinforced each other built their own fortress against the world. >> host: we have a question over here. >> thank you. the book was fantastic. a lot of what you're talking about so far touches on the caricature of bill as a elite u.s. but discuss the popiist -- populist, and the quit about the boston telephone directory and his mayoral run and how he connected with the cop, the bus driver, just like his brother did. i'd like your