Page images
PDF
EPUB

morning, before four of the clock (his accustomed hour being about nine in this time of sickness), return to his chamber, where he used to spend his time in the day, before any fire could be gotten there. The gentleman that then attended, came and called me out of bed, and told me in what a condition the general was. I hastened to him and found his countenance much changed; but his understanding very firm, full of smiles. He asked me what I had to do to be up so early. I informed him that I thought his time was not long in this world, and that I was come to pray with him, with which he was well pleased. I performed the office appointed by the Church. for the visitation of the sick, and he made profession of his faith, and of charity to all men. And being asked if he had settled his estate, he told me in that he had formerly given me satisfaction. He then received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper about seven of the clock, which was on New Year's Day, the 1st of January 1670.”

The Duke lingered two days after having received the Sacrament, dying in his chair, placidly, and without a groan, on the third of January, 1670, in his sixty-second year. The fanatics had long before predicted that he would not die in his bed. The fact of his departing in his chair appeared to them a sufficient, if not a triumphant, fulfilment of the prophecy.

Although the family of the deceased Duke were well able to defray the expenses even of the most sumptuous funeral, Charles, from a grateful remembrance of his services, expressed his determination to honour the memory of his benefactor by a public interment, and at his own charge. After having lain in state at Somerset House for several weeks, the body, on the fourth of April, was interred, with great magnificence, on the north side of Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster; the King

following the procession in person. His duchess survived her husband only a few days.

The Duke left only one son, Christopher, who was born in 1653, and who succeeded to his titles and vast fortune. When, according to custom, he delivered to the King the insignia of the Order of the Garter, which had been worn by his late father, Charles gracefully returned them to the son, whom he announced as a Knight of the Order. The second Duke was an easy good-natured person, as indolent in his habits as his father had been the reverse: he exerted himself, however, during Monmouth's rebellion, and was active in raising troops against that unfortunate nobleman. He was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, a member of the privy-council, and latterly Governor of Jamaica, in which island he died in 1688, without leaving an heir. We have mentioned that he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Ogle, afterwards Duke of Newcastle. He was at the time only in his seventeenth year. This lady was a considerable heiress, but was so peevish and ill-tempered that their union embittered his existence. In order to drown his domestic troubles in oblivion, the Duke is said to have addicted himself, as a last resource, to the pleasures of the bottle. After his death his Duchess publicly announced her determination to marry none but a sovereign prince. Among her suitors were the reprobate Lord Rosse, and Ralph Lord Montagu,* of whom the latter proved the successful candidate. In order to flatter her

* Ralph Montagu, third Baron Montagu, ambassador to France in 1669. For his share in promoting the Revolution of 1688, he was created by King William, on the 9th of April, 1689, Viscount Monthermer and Earl of Montagu. In 1705, Queen Anne advanced him to be Marquis of Monthermer and Duke of Montagu. He died in 1709.

insane fancies, he had courted her as Emperor of China; a circumstance which produced the following lines from his angry competitor:

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Of her insanity there can be no doubt: indeed her second husband placed her in confinement. She was indulged in her phantasies, and, to the last, was served on the knee as a sovereign princess. Her principal residence was in Montagu House, which stood on the site of the present British Museum, where she occupied a suite of apartments on the ground-floor. She died at Newcastle House, Clerkenwell, her paternal property, on the 28th of August 1734, at a very advanced age.

GEORGE VILLIERS,

SECOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

CHAPTER I.

Character of this Nobleman-His Education with the Children of Charles I.-Present at the storming of Lichfield-His Estates confiscated by the Parliament-His Defeat under the Earl of Holland at Nonsuch-Melancholy Death of his younger brother, Lord Francis Villiers-The Duke escapes to St. Neot's-Present with Charles II. in Scotland-Escapes from the Battle of WorcesterHis subsequent Adventures-Performs the Character of a Mountebank in the Streets of London-Escapes to France-Returns privately and marries Fairfax's Daughter-Anger of Cromwell, who commits the Duke to the Tower-Released by Richard Cromwell -Honours conferred on Buckingham at the Restoration-His Wit and conversational Talents-Anecdotes-Instances of his whimsical Caprice.

"A MAN SO various that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome.
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,
Was everything by starts, and nothing long;
But in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,
Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking.
Blest madman, who could every hour employ,
With something new to wish, or to enjoy!
Railing and praising were his usual themes,
And both, to show his judgment, in extremes.
So over violent, or over civil,

That every man with him was god or devil.
In squandering wealth was his peculiar art;
Nothing went unrewarded but desert.

Beggared by fools, who still he found too late,

He had his jest, and they had his estate.

He laughed himself from court: then sought relief
By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief:
For, spite of him, the weight of business fell

On Absalom and wise Achitophel :

Thus, wicked but in will, of means bereft,

He left not faction, but of that was left."*

This fine poetical portrait is familiar with every one. Sketched by the hand of a great master.-one who was intimately acquainted with the features he drew,-it contains, in the most admirable verse, the nicest perception of character, the truest living resemblance, or the wild, witty, and fantastical Buckingham. The por trait of the gifted and profligate visionary has been drawn by others with less beauty, but with equal truth, and even with greater severity. Destitute of all qualities which could have procured him a friend in his lifetime, he left the memory of no virtues to procure him a eulogist when he was dead. We turn with a melancholy feeling to his unprofitable career of libertinism and caprice; to the tale of extravagant frolic and unmanageable wit; of time misapplied and brilliant talents misemployed the story of one who suffered adversity without profiting by it; who laughed at fools, yet was himself their dupe; who ruined himself for his sovereign at one time, and plotted against him at another; who inherited. a princely fortune, yet died a beggar; and lastly, who laughed at Christianity, and yet died professing his belief in its tenets. Posterity has the advantage of the moral. We learn that, without virtue or principle, even the most brilliant advantages cannot confer happiness, and that the courted and dazzling George Villiers"That life of pleasure and that soul of whim-"

* Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel."

VOL. III.

F

« PreviousContinue »