merits and qualifications of both were united in his person : Others maintained that he had too indolent an air, and too delicate a shape, long to maintain himself in her favour; but all agreed, that a man who was the favourite of the king's mistress, and brother to the duke's favourite, was in a fair way of preferment, and could not fail to make his fortune. As a proof, the Duke of York soon after gave him a place in his household: This was naturally to be expected; but the king, who did not think that Lady Cleveland's kindness to him was a sufficient recommendation to his favour, thought proper to forbid him the

court.

This good-natured king began now to be rather peevish; nor was it altogether without reason: He disturbed no person in their amours, and yet others had often the presumption to encroach upon his. Lord Dorset, first lord of the bed-chamber, had lately debauched from his service Nell Gwyn, the actress Lady Cleveland, whom he now no longer regarded, continued to disgrace him by repeated infidelities with unworthy rivals,

and almost ruined him by the immense sums she lavished on her gallants; but that which most sensibly affected him, was the late coldness and threats of Miss Stewart. He long since had offered her all the settlements and all the titles she could desire, until he had an opportunity more effectually to provide for her, which she had pretended only to decline, for fear of the scandal they might occasion, on her being raised to a rank which would attract the public notice; but since the return of the court, she had given herself other airs: Sometimes she was for retiring from court, to appease the continual uneasiness her presence gave the queen: At other times, it was to avoid temptations, by which she wished to insinuate that her innocence was still preserved: In short, the king's heart was continually distracted by alarms, or oppressed by humour and caprice.

As he could not for his life imagine what Miss Stewart wished him to do, or what she would be at, he thought upon reforming his establishment of mistresses, to try whether jealousy was not the real occasion of her un