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Six days after, was all in the dust!" This, we suppose, is what the king meant by a little irregular pleasure. When, once upon telling Burnet, he was no atheist, he added, "but he could not think God would make a man miserable only for taking a little pleasure out of the way." This, however, appears to have been only a quiet party at home; the following is a more formal and solemn entertainment.

"This evening I was at the entertainment of the Morocco ambassador, at the Dutchess of Portsmouth's glorious apartments at Whitehall, where was a great banquet of sweetmeats and music, but at which, both the ambassador and her retinue behaved themselves with extraordinary moderation and modesty, though placed about a long table, a lady between two Moors, and amongst these were the king's natural children, viz. Lady Litchfield and Sussex, the Dutchess of Portsmouth and Nelly, &c., concubines and cattle of that sort, as splendid as jewels and excess of bravery could make them. The Moors neither admiring nor seeming to regard any thing, furniture, or the like, with any earnestness, and but decently tasting of the banquet. They drank a little milk and water, but not a drop of wine: they also drank of a sorbett and a jacolatt; did not look about or stare at the ladies, or express the least surprise, but with a courtly negligence in face and countenance, and whole behaviour, answering only to such questions as were asked, with a great deal of wit and gallantry, and so gravely took leave with this compliment, That God would bless the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the prince her son, meaning the little Duke of Richmond. The king came in at the latter end, just as the ambassador was going away. . . . . . In a word the Russian ambassador, still at court, behaved himself like a clown, compared to this heathen.

In these scenes of debauchery, there was more, we suspect, of the bravery and show, than the substance of vice, as far as regarded the king himself: the following just observations nicely discriminate his character in this respect, and serve as an ingenious commentary on the passages above quoted." He was rather abandoned than luxurious, and, like our female libertines, apter to be debauched for the satisfaction of others, than to seek with choice where most to please himself. I am of opinion also, that, in his latter times, there was as much of laziness, as of love, in all those hours he passed among his mistresses; who, after all, served only to fill up his seraglio; while a bewitching kind of pleasure, called sauntering, and talking without any constraint, was the true sultana queen he delighted in!"* The facility with which he was induced to entertain any new favourite proposed to him, as well as the

* Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. Character of King Charles II.

apathy he, on different occasions, discovered to the lady's open infidelity, "neither angry with rivals, nor in the least nice as to being beloved," substantiate this opinion. The mode in which his intimacy with the French lady (afterwards Dutchess of Portsmouth) commenced, and her introduction at Whitehall, are extremely characteristic of all the parties concerned. The Duke of Buckingham had fallen out with the Dutchess of Cleveland, and, after attempting to detach the king from her, by leading him to form various new connexions, he finally met with an auxiliary, who did the business effectually. Having observed the "king pay particular attention to a certain Mad. Querouaille, a maid of honour to madame, his sister, at the time when he went to meet the latter at Dover, he said to him 'that it was only a decent piece of tenderness for his sister, to take care of some of her servants.' So the king consented to invite her over. The duke also, when at Paris, assured the King of France, that he could never reckon himself secure of his master, but by giving him a mistress that should be true to his interest. The matter being settled, Buckingham sent her, with part of his baggage, to Dieppe, and said he would presently follow; but being, of all men, the most inconstant and forgetful, he never thought of her more, and went to England, by the way of Calais. Hearing of this, the ambassador, Mountague, sent over for a yacht for her; and despatched some of his servants to wait on her, and defray her charges till she was brought to Whitehall and then Lord Arlington took care of her. Thus did Buckingham bring over a mistress, whom his own strange and capricious conduct threw into the hands of his enemies. The king was presently taken with her, and she studied to please and observe him in every thing. Mr. Evelyn often saw them, on her first arrival at Euston, a seat of Lord Arlington's, where he said, "it was with confidence believed she was first made a misse, as they call those unhappy creatures, with solemnity," the stocking having been flung after the manner of a married bride. Nay, it was said that I was present at the ceremony, but it is utterly false." He acknowledges to have seen fondness and toying enough with that young wanton, as he unceremoniously calls her; but though he had observed all passages with sufficient curiosity, he saw nothing more. Though generally held to be one of the prime beauties of the day, she appeared to him of a childish, simple, and baby face. The king passed away the rest of his life in great fondness for her, and kept her at an enormous charge; she, by many fits of sickness, some real, and others thought only pretended, gaining of him every thing she desired. With what success she had acted her part with the royal lover, we

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may form some conception, from another passage of Evelyn, dated so late as 1683:

"Following his majesty this morning through the gallery, I went with the few who attended him into the Dutchess of Portsmouth's dressing-room within her bed-chamber, when she was in her morning loose garment, her maids combing her, newly out of bed, his majesty and gallants standing about her: but that which engaged my curiosity, was the rich and splendid furniture of this woman's apartment, now twice or thrice pulled down to satisfy her prodigal and expensive pleasures, whilst her majesty's does not exceed some gentlemen's ladies, in furniture and accommodation."

She was not, however, absolutely without a rival in his favour and affections. Madame de Sevigné, speaking of her in one of her letters, says, "she amasses treasure, and makes herself feared and respected by as many as she can. But she did not foresee, that she should find a young actress in her way, whom the king doats on; and she has it not in her power to withdraw him from her. He divides his care, his time, and his health, between these two. The actress is as haughty as Mademoiselle she insults her, she makes grimaces at her, she attacks her, she frequently steals the king from her, and boasts whenever he gives her the preference. She is young, indiscreet, confident, wild, and of an agreeable humour. She sings, she dances, and she acts her part with a good grace.

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This creature gets the upper-hand, and discountenances and embarrasses the dutchess extremely." The lively young lady was no other than Mrs. Ellen Gwyn, whom Burnet, with more than usual gaiety, characterizes as "the wildest and indiscreetest thing that ever was in a court;" who acted all sons in a lively manner, and was such a constant diversion to the king, that even a new mistress could not drive her away. The Duke of Buckingham told him, that when she was brought to the king, she asked only £500 a year, and the king refused it. But at the time he told him this, four years after her first introduction, she had got of the king above £60,000.

In Charles's extravagant expenditure of money, there was a singular compound of parsimony and profusion. "While he sacrificed all things to his mistresses, he would use to grudge, and be uneasy at their losing a little of it again at play, though ever so necessary for their diversion. Nor would he venture five pounds to those who might obtain as many thousands, either before he came thither, or as soon as he left off*." He sometimes, however, ventured deeper.

Sheffield Duke of Buckingham's Character.

"6th Jan. 1622.-This evening, according to custom, his majesty opened the revels of that night, by throwing the dice himself, in the privy-chamber, where was a table set on purpose, and lost his £100.-(The year before he won £1500.)-The ladies also played very deep. I came away when the Duke of Ormond had won about £1000, and left them still at passage cards," &c.

The only occasion on which Charles evinced any thing like jealousy and passion in love, was at the time he paid court to Miss Steward, whom the queen's mother had brought over with her from France. To the repeated infidelities of the Dutchess of Cleveland, at that time the reigning favourite, he was perfectly callous; even though one of them, by the artifice of Buckingham, was brought under his own observation, the party concerned leaping out of the window. She was a woman of great beauty, says Burnet, but most enormously vicious and ravenous; foolish, but imperious; very uneasy to the king, and speaking of him, to all persons, in a manner that brought him under general contempt; always carrying on intrigues with other men, while yet she pretended to be jealous of him. Her abuse, infidelity, and the libels of all sorts, which she circulated freely, gave him no concern; but Miss Steward gained so much upon him, and yet kept her ground with so much firmness, that he seemed to meditate legitimatizing his addresses to her, if possible, since he saw no hope of succeeding any other way. She was courted by the Duke of Richmond; and the king, hoping to break that matter secretly, pretended to take mighty care of her interests, and would have good settlements made her, which, he well knew, the duke was in no condition to do. He was told, whether false or true, that Lord Clarendon had advised the lady to consider well before she rejected the duke. It was hinted he did this in order to reserve the succession to the crown to his own grand-children, whose prospects any new marriage of the king's would most effectually blight. At length the lady was prevailed upon to leave Whitehall privately, and marry the duke, without giving his majesty

notice.

It happened that the Earl of Clarendon's son, Lord Cornbury, was going to her lodgings, upon some assignation she had given him about her affairs. He met the king in the door-way, coming out full of fury; and the latter immediately suspecting that Lord Cornbury was in the design, spoke to him, as one in a rage, that forgot all decency, and, for some time, would not hear him speak in his defence. It is said, that this incident made so deep an impression upon the king's mind, that from that time he resolved to take the seals from Lord Claren

don." This is the only instance we know, of his having exhibited any tokens of what might be called passion; at all other times his love appears to have been an easy, gentle, and quiet sort of sensation, which never disturbed that tranquillity of spirits he was so careful to maintain, or gave him the least annoyance. Indeed he was not a man of strong passion at all, -he neither hated nor loved,-nor sought revenge,-nor pursued ambitious schemes with any degree of vehemence or energy. To use the expression of Sheffield, he sauntered through life, and hated, above all things, to be obliged to alter or mend his pace.

The time, which was not devoted to attendance on his ladies, or to business, (the latter need hardly have been mentioned, it was too inconsiderable) he spent in walking in the park, where he usually exercised himself for three or four hours, at a pace, which made it difficult to all about him to keep up with him. Whilst his brother's levees were crowded, and his anti-chambers full, Charles had scarce company about him to entertain him; and he walked about with only a small body train of necessary attendants, whilst the duke had a vast and splendid following. This drew a lively reflection from Waller, the celebrated wit. He said "the House of Commons had resolved, that the duke should not reign after the king's death: but the king, in opposition to them, was resolved he should reign even during his life."

His habits, indeed, and pleasures, were all, except in the sumptuousness in which he frequently indulged, those of a private individual, and he had many little petit amusements, which are usually held below the notice of a sovereign. "He took delight," says Evelyn, "in having a number of little spaniels follow him, and lie in his bed-chamber, where often he suffered the bitches to puppy and give suck, which rendered it very offensive, and, indeed, made the whole court nasty and stinking." Another amusement was to stock the canal, which formed a decoy, in St. James's Park, with various kinds of wild fowl, which Evelyn has been at the pains to enumerate; and to feed them with his own hand, was one of his daily pleasures. He used to maintain, that, take one day with another, and you may be out more days in the open air in England, than in any other country in Europe, and his own practice illustrated his doctrines, for he rarely allowed himself to be deprived of his daily exercise. When, however, the weather made it impossible, or when lameness, as in the last year of his

* Burnet..

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