professed himself a protestant of the church

lordship, "came seldom into the queen's company: and when he did, he spake not to her; but spent his time in other divertisements, and in the company of those who made it their business to laugh at all the world, and who were as bold with God Almighty as with any of his creatures. He persevered in all his resolutions without any remorse: directed a day for all the Portugueses to be embarked, without assigning any considerable thing of bounty to any of them, or vouchsafing to write any letter to the king or queen of Portugal of the cause of the dismission of them. And this rigour prevailed upon the great heart of the queen, who had not received any money to enable her to be liberal to any of those who had attended her out of their own country, and promised themselves places of great advantage in her family. And she earnestly desired the king, that she might retain some of those who were known to her, and of most use, that she might not be wholly left in the hands of strangers; and employed others to make the same suit to the king on her behalf. Whereupon the countess of Penalva, who had been bred with her from a child, and who, by the infirmity of her eyes, and other indisposition of health, scarce stirred out of her chamber, was permitted to remain in the court; and some few inferior servants in the kitchen and lowest offices, besides those who were necessary to her devotions, were left behind. All the rest were transported to Portugal. The officers of the revenue were required to use all strictness in the receipt of that part of the portion that was brought over with the fleet; and not to allow any of those demands which were made upon the computation of the value of momey, and other allowances upon the account: and

of England, as by law established; yet, it

Diego de Silva, who was designed in Portugal, without any good reason, to be the queen's treasurer, and, upon that expectation, had undertaken that troublesome province to see the money paid in London by what was assigned to that purpose, was committed to prison for not making haste enough in the payment, and in finishing the account: and his commitment went very near the queen, as an affront done to herself. The Portugal ambassador, who was a very honest man, and so desirous to serve the king that he had upon the matter lost the queen, was heart-broken; and after a long sickness, which all men believed would have killed him, as soon as he was able to endure the air, left Hampton Court, and retired to his own house in the city. In all this time the king pursued his point; the lady came to the court, was lodged there, was every day in the queen's presence, and the king in continual conference with her; whilst the queen sat untaken notice of: and if her majesty rose at the indignity, and retired into her chamber, it may be one or two attended her; but all the company remained in the room she left, and too often said those things aloud which nobody ought to have whispered. The king (who had, in the beginning of this conflict, appeared still with a countenance of trouble and sadness, which

* How expensive the lady was to his majesty, we may learn from Mr. Marvel. "They have signed and sealed," says he, "ten thousand pounds a year more to the duchess of Cleveland; who has likewise near ten thousand pounds a year out of the new farm of the country excise of beer and ale; five thousand pounds a year out of the post-office; and, they say, the reversion of all the king's leases, the reversion of all places in the custom-house, the green-wax, and, indeed, what not? All promotions, spiritual and temporal, pass under her cognizance." — Works, vol. II,

p. 75.

is highly probable, he lived for a great

had been manifest to every body, and no doubt was really afflicted, and sometimes wished that he had not proceeded so far, until he was again new chafed with the reproach of being governed, which he received with the most sensible indignation, and was commonly provoked with it most by those who intended most to govern him) had now vanquished, or suppressed, all those tendernesses and reluctances, and appeared every day more gay and pleasant, without any clouds in his face, and full of good-humour; saving, that the close observers thought it more feigned and affected, than of a natural growth. However, to the queen it appeared very real; and made her the more sensible, that she, alone, was left out of all jollities, and not suffered to have any part of those pleasant applications and caresses, which she saw made to almost every body else; an universal mirth in all company but in hers, and in all places but in her chamber; her own servants shewing more respect and more diligence to the person of the lady, than towards their own mistress, who they found could do them less good. The nightly meeting continued with the same or more license; and the discourses which passed there, of what argument soever, were the discourse of the whole court and of the town the day following: whilst the queen had the king's company those few hours which remained of the preceding night, and which were too little for sleep. All these mortifications were too heavy to be borne: so that, at last, when it was least expected or suspected, the queen, on a sudden, let herself fall first to conversation and then to familiarity, and, even in the same instant, to a confidence with the lady was merry with her in publick, talked

VOL. V.

:

E

number of years, as he certainly died a

kindly of her, and in private nobody used more friendly. This excess of condescension, without any provocation or invitation, except by multiplication of injuries and neglect, and after all friendships were renewed, and indulgence yielded to new liberty, did the queen less good than her former resoluteness had done. Very many looked upon her with much compassion; commended the greatness of her spirit, detested the barbarity of the affronts she underwent, and censured them as loudly as they durst; not without assuming the liberty, sometimes, of insinuating to the king himself, how much his own honour suffered in the neglect and disrespect of her own servants, who ought, at least in publick, to manifest some duty and reverence towards her majesty; and how much he lost in the general affections of his subjects: and that, besides the displeasure of God Almighty, he could not reasonably hope for children by the queen, which was the great if not the only blessing of which he stood in need, whilst her heart was so full of grief, and whilst she was continually exercised with such insupportable afflictions. And many, who were not wholly unconversant with the king, nor strangers to his temper and constitution, did believe that he grew weary of the struggle, and even ready to avoid the scandal that was so notorious, by the lady's withdrawing from the verge of the court, and being no longer seen there, how firmly soever the friendship might be established. But this sudden downfall, and total abandoning her own greatness; this low demeanour, and even application to a person she had justly abhorred and worthily contemned, made all men conclude, that it was a hard matter to know her, and, consequently, to serve her. And

the king himself was so far from being reconciled by it, that the esteem, which he could not hitherto but fetain in his heart for her, grew now much less. He concluded, that all her former aversion, expressed in those lively passions, which seemed not capable of dissimulation, was all fiction, and purely acted to the life, by a nature crafty, perverse, and inconstant. He congratulated his own ill-natured perseverance; by which he had discovered how he was to behave himself hereafter, and what remedies he was to apply to all futuré indispositions: nor had he, ever after, the same value of her wit, judgment, and understanding, which hé had formerly; and was well enough pleased to observe, that the reverence others had for all three was somewhat diminished." No remarks need be made on this narrative. Every humane man must feel an indignation arise in his breast against the actor of such barbarities. What-were the feeding of ducks, the humming of a song at a public entertainment, or mixing in the humours of the company, to counterbalance such vile behaviour?--We may, therefore, very easily believe Burnet, when he tells us, that the king, on his death-bed, "said nothing of the queen; nor any one word of his people, or of his servants His mind was incapable of sentiments of humanity. A selfist he was; whose thoughts terminated in himself, and who regarded none who were not subservient to his pleasures. Such characters are not uncommon in life; in the higher parts of it-as, in conformity to custom, they must be called: but they are characters which will be despised, and execrated, as long as there is sense, or virtue, remaining in the world.

b "

Clarendon's Coutinuation, vol. II. p. 339–343. b Burnet, vol. I.

p. 699.