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and the handsomest man in the Court, was also a favoured lover. "The Duchess," says de Grammont, "who neither recommended to him circumspection in his behaviour nor in his conversation, did not seem to be in the least concerned at his indiscretion. Thus this intrigue had become a general topic in all companies, and occasioned a great variety of speculations and reasonings, when the Court arrived in London: some said she had already presented him Jermyn's pension and Jacob Hall's salary, because the merits and qualifications of both were united in his person." The Duke of Buckingham at last opened the King's eyes on the subject, and contrived that he himself should be a witness to his mistress's infidelity. Churchill escaped by leaping out of a window, but it did not prevent his being banished the Court.

The last person whom the Duchess honoured with her favours, previous to her separation from Charles, was William Wycherley, the gay and handsome poet. Their coaches were one day passing each other in Pall Mall, when to his astonishment the Duchess thrust her head out of the carriage window, and exclaimed,—“ You, Wycherley, you are a son of a The poet was at first somewhat confused, but remembering the following stanza, in a song introduced into his "Love in a

Wood,"

"Where parents are slaves,

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Their brats cannot be any other;

Great wits and great braves

Have always a punk for their mother;"

he considered it as a compliment to his wit, and immediately drove after her carriage into the park. Buckingham threatened to inform the King of their intimacy. Shortly afterwards, however, meeting Wycherley at the

house of a friend, the Duke was so charmed with his conversation, that he admitted him to his friendship, and assisted in making his fortune.

About the year 1670, the Duchess of Cleveland retired to France, in which country, with the exception of an occasional visit to England, she resided during the remainder of her life. At Paris, though her beauty latterly survived but in reputation, she was not without lovers. The Chevalier de Chatillon, a French gentleman, and Ralph Montagu, the English Ambassador, afterwards the first Duke of that name, were among her admirers. Burnet speaks of Montagu as "bewitched" with the discarded mistress; and her intrigue with Chatillon was so notorious, that Charles wrote to remonstrate with her on the subject. Either a feeling of jealousy still lurked in his mind, or he was unwilling to become a laughing-stock to the French Court. In a letter from the Duchess to her old lover, dated Paris, Tuesday the 28th, 1678,-alluding to a letter she had written to her French gallant, and which Charles either had or was likely to obtain possession of, she thus writes: "The letter he [Sir Harry Tichborn] has, and I doubt not he has or will send it to you. Now all I have to say for myself is, that you know, as to love, one is no mistress of oneself, and that you ought not to be offended at me, since all things of this nature is at an end with you and I, so that I could do you no prejudice."-And she adds in the same letter,"I promise you, that for my conduct it shall be such, as that you nor nobody shall have occasion to blame me, And I hope you will be just to what you said to me, which was at my house when you told me you had letters of mine; you said 'Madam, all that I ask of you for your own sake is, live so for the future

as to make

196 BARBARA VILLIERS, DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND.

the least noise you can, and I care not who you love.'"*

On the 25th of November, 1705, in her sixty-sixth year, the Duchess was weak enough to unite herself to Robert Fielding, better known as Beau Fielding, a man of broken fortunes and indifferent character, but as handsome as any of her early lovers. His conduct to her after marriage was so brutal, that she was compelled to claim the protection of the law. Fortunately for her, it was discovered that he was the husband of another. This person was one Mary Wadsworth, who had assumed the name and character of a Mrs. Deleau, an heiress of the period, and who had thus deceived Fielding into marrying her. He was prosecuted and found guilty of bigamy, but was afterwards pardoned. The particulars, which are extremely curious, will be found at length in the State Trials. Fielding is the hero of Steele's Papers in "The Tatler," Nos. 50 and 51, entitled the History of Orlando the Fair.

The Duchess died at her house at Chiswick, of a dropsy, on the 9th October, 1709. She has been commended as having been the patron of Dryden, but had Flecknoe, Shadwell, or any other of his less gifted contemporaries, been the fashion of the day, they were, perhaps, just as likely to have been distinguished by her indiscriminate favours. She was a convert to the Roman Catholic religion, but at what period, and under what circumstances, is equally unimportant and obscure.

* Harris, vol. v. p. 372. From a copy among the Harleian MSS.

197

LOUISE DE QUÉROUALLE,

DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH.

Accompanies the Duchess of Orleans to England-Charles is fascinated by her Beauty-Lineage of this Lady-Her connection with the Political Intrigues of the Period-Her baneful Influence over the King-Honours conferred upon her-Her Avarice-Her splendid Apartments at Whitehall-Description of her Person-Lampoons of the Period-The Duchess supposed to be married to CharlesShe is avoided by the ancient Nobility-Intrigues with Lord Danby and the Prior of Vendôme-Her Distress at the Death of Charles-She retires to France-Her old Age, and Death.

Ar the period when it was the policy of Louis the Fourteenth to detach the Court of England from the Triple League, he is well known to have selected the charming Duchess of Orleans, the favourite sister of Charles, to persuade him to accede to that disgraceful measure. Το any other monarch he would have despatched a Sully or a Richelieu. To Charles he sent

a brilliant embassy of gay men and beautiful women, accompanied by the trappings of pleasure and the promise of gold. "Louis," says Hume, "in order to fix him in the French interests, resolved to bind him by the ties of pleasure, the only ones which with him were irresistible e; and he made him a present of a French mistress, by whose means he hoped for the future to govern him.” We need scarcely add, that Mademoiselle de Quéroualle was the person alluded to by Hume. She was about five-and-twenty when, in 1670, she appeared in the train of the Duchess of Orleans at the English Court. Her manners were ingratiating, her wit agreeable, and her face

beautiful. Charles was fascinated by her accomplishments, and, as Buckingham and the enemies of the Duchess of Cleveland assisted with their intrigues, it was not long before she became the professed mistress of the easy monarch. The Peerages style her the Lady Louise Renée de Penencovet de Quéroualle. This long list of names was before long familiarly abbreviated by the English into the single and familiar one of "Carwell.” Little is known of her origin and early history, but that she was descended from a noble family in Lower Brittany, and that she had been taken from a convent to be maid of honour to the Duchess of Orleans. Her arrival in England was celebrated both by Dryden and St. Ervemond; by the former in dull, and by the latter in indecent, verse.

Charles, without scruple, appointed his new mistress a maid of honour to his Queen, and eventually a lady of the bedchamber. From the period of her being domesticated at Whitehall, we find her a spy on the actions of Charles; a mischievous meddler in the English Court; a promoter of French interests, and the cause of English debasement. There is no dishonest transaction — no profligate political intrigue—which disgraced the last years of this unhappy reign, in which she does not appear as a principal mover. The King's acceptance of a pension from France; his disgraceful engagements with that country; his crusade against parliaments; and the treachery of England towards the Dutch, were alike hatched in her closet and fostered under her influence. Thus could a trifler and a beauty sway the destinies of Europe. With a head teeming with politics, and a heart with the love of pleasure, the intriguing Frenchwoman was as much detested by the nation as she was beloved by the King. Charles continued more constant to her than to

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