'intend to pursue; for, if you are in 'love, your passion will still increase, ' and the greater your attachment, the 'less capable will you be of making 'those serious reflections which are 'still in your power.'

'My poor philosopher,' answered the Chevalier de Grammont, you un'derstand Latin very well, you can 'make good verses, you understand 'the course, and are acquainted with 'the nature of the stars in the firma'ment; but, as for the luminaries of 'the terrestrial globe, you are utterly ❝ unacquainted with them. You have 'told me nothing about Miss Hamilton ' but what the king told me three days ago. That she has refused the savages you have mentioned is an additional ' recommendation: if she had admitted 'their addresses, I would have had no

thing to say to her, though I love her to

'distraction. Attend now to what I am going to say: I am resolved to marry 'her, and I will have my tutor Saint · Evremond himself to be the first man to commend me for it. As for an 'establishment, I shall make my peace ' with the king, and will solicit him to 'make her one of the ladies of the 'bed-chamber to the queen: this he 'will grant me. Toulongeon will die, 'without my assistance, and notwith'standing all his care; and Miss Ha'milton will have Semeac, with the

6

Chevalier de Grammont, as an in'demnification for the Norfolks and 'Richmonds. Now, have you any thing to advance against this project? For I will bet you an hundred louis, 'that every thing will happen as I have 'foretold it.'

At this time the king's attachment to Miss Stewart was so public, that

every person perceived, that if she was but possessed of art, she might become as absolute a mistress over his conduct as she was over his heart. This was a fine opportunity for those who had experience and ambition. The Duke of Buckingham formed the design of governing her in order to ingratiate himself with the king. God knows what a governor he would have been, and what a head he was possessed of, to guide another; however, he was the properest man in the world to insinuate himself with Miss Stewart. She was childish in her behaviour, and laughed at every thing, and her taste for frivolous amusements, though unaffected, was only allowable in a girl of twelve or thirteen years old. A child, however, she was, in every other respect, except playing with a doll: blind-man's buff was her most

favourite amusement: she was building castles of cards, while the deepest play was going on in her apartments, where you might have seen her surrounded by eager courtiers, who handed her the cards, or young architects, who endeavoured to imitate her.

She had, however, a passion for music, and had some taste for singing. The duke of Buckingham, who built the finest towers of cards imaginable, had an agreeable voice: she had no aversion to scandal, and the duke was both the father and the mother of scandal: he made songs, and invented old women's stories, with which she was delighted; but his particular talent consisted in turning into ridicule whatever was ridiculous in other people, and in taking them off, even in their presence, without their perceiving it. In short, he knew how to act all parts, with so

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much grace and pleasantry, that it was difficult to do without him, when he had a mind to make himself agreeable; and he made himself so necessary to Miss Stewart's amusement, that she མར་ sent all over the town to seek for him, when he did not attend the King to her apartments. otsailA br.1

He was extremely handsome, and thought himself much much more so than he really was: although he had a great deal of discernment, yet his vanity made him mistake some civilities as intended for his person, which she only bestowed on his

This mimicry and drollery: in short, being seduced by too good an opinion of his

o soon an opinion of his own merit he forgot his first project and his Portuguese mistress, in order to pursue a fancy in which he found himself com

pletely mistaken; for he began to act a serious part with Miss;