founded than his cousin ought to have been on such an occasion, 'you may depend upon having both: I 'make no manner of doubt but she

' will marry you, as soon as she recovers from her lying-in; and it would be great ill-nature in her, who already knows the way, to let 'you want children: however, in the mean time, I advise you to ' take that she has already, till you get

' more.'

Notwithstanding this raillery, all that was said did take place. This faithful lover courted her, as if she had been the chaste Lucretia, or the beauteous Helen: his passion even increased after marriage, and the generous fair, attached to him at first from gratitude, soon became so through inclination, and never brought him a child of which he was not the father;

and though there has been many a happy couple in England, this certainly was the happiest.

Sometime after, Miss Bellenden, not dismayed by this example, had the prudence to quit the court before she was obliged so to do: the disagreeable Bardou followed her soon after, but for different reasons. Every person was at last completely tired of her saraband, as well as of her face; and the king, that he might see neither of them any more, gave her a small pension for her subsistence. There now only remained little Mademoiselle de la Garde to be provided for. Neither her virtues nor her vices were sufficiently conspicuous to occasion her being either dismissed from court, or pressed to remain there: God knows what would have become of her, if a Mr. Silvius, a man who had nothing of

the Roman about him but the name, had not taken the poor girl to be his wife.

We have now shewn how all these damsels deserved to be expelled, either for their irregularities, or for their ugliness; notwithstanding those who replaced them found means to make them regretted, Miss Wells only excepted.

This was a tall girl, exquisitely shaped she dressed well, and walked like a goddess; and yet, her face, though made like those that generally please the most, was unfortunately one of those that pleased the least: nature had spread over it a certain careless indolence that made her look sheepish. This gave but a bad opinion of her understanding: and her conversation had the ill-luck to confirm that opinion. However, as she was fresh coloured, and appeared in

experienced, the king, whom the fair Stewart did not render over nice as to the mental perfections of his mistresses, resolved to try whether the senses would not fare better with Miss Wells's person, than fine sentiments with her understanding. This experiment was not attended with much difficulty. She was of a loyal family; and her father having faithfully served Charles the First, she thought it her duty to be equally obedient to Charles the Second. But this connexion was not attended with very advantageous circumstances for her: some said that she did not hold out long enough, and that she surrendered at discretion before she was vigorously attacked; and others said, that his majesty complained of certain other facilities still less pleasing. The Duke of Buckingham made a couplet upon this occa

sion, wherein the king, speaking to Progers, the confidant of his intrigues, puns upon the name of the fair one, to the following purport:

When the king felt the horrible depth of this Well, Tell me, Progers, cried Charley, where am I? oh tell!

Had I sought the world's center to find, I had found it,

But this Well! ne'er a plummet was made that could sound it.

Miss Wells, notwithstanding this punning upon her name, and these remarks upon her person, shone the brightest among her new companions. These were Miss Livingston, Miss Fielding, and Miss Boynton, who little deserve to be mentioned in these memoirs; therefore we shall leave them in obscurity until it please fortune to draw them out of it.