DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0210
180
THE DUCHESS OE RICHMOND.
time with distant homage, and with drinking pint bumpers in
honour of her beauty, till he had almost lost the little intellect
nature had bestowed on him ; but what he lost in wit he seems to
have gained in audacity, for he made the fair lady understand,
that though reduced for the present to drown his love in wine, he
was ready to make her a duchess whenever she was willing to elope
with him. In the mean time, though the King had the power of
keeping all competitors at a distance, he was not himself more
avance. Miss Stewart retained her power by standing most per-
tinaciously on the defensive, without actually driving’ him to
despair. When the Queen fell dangerously ill, she was imme-
diately surrounded by the obsequious and rapacious courtiers, and
regarded as her probable successor: the atrocious advice of the
Duke of Buckingham on this occasion, has been related in the
memoir of Queen Catherine. Miss Stewart, on her quarrel with
Lady Castlemaine, had made a great display of duty to the Queen,
who treated her with kindness, and seems to have placed some
confidence in her discretion. While the King pursued her with the
most undisguised and insulting attention, Miss Stewart certainly
avenged some of the wrongs of her mistress, and her whole sex,
by the dexterity with which she contrived to torment her accom-
plished but profligate lover. She stooped at times to very
equivocal compliances when afraid to lose him; at another moment
she would talk of throwing’ herself into a French convent: and
her airs and caprices, her alternate fits of hauteur and tenderness,
so agitated the King, that he sometimes appeared at the council-
board like a man distracted. He offered titles which were refused,
and presents—which were accepted; he set about reforming his
menage d’amour in compliance with her affected scruples and
pretended jealousy j he promised to give up Lady Castlemaine,
and to discard his singers and actresses, and other superfluous
ladies then on his establishmentin vain! till at a critical
moment the Chevalier De Grammont stepped in to his majesty’s
assistance. De Grammont had just received from Paris a certain
caliche, which he presented to the King. Such a caleche, so
light, so elegant in its form, so finished in all its appointments,
THE DUCHESS OE RICHMOND.
time with distant homage, and with drinking pint bumpers in
honour of her beauty, till he had almost lost the little intellect
nature had bestowed on him ; but what he lost in wit he seems to
have gained in audacity, for he made the fair lady understand,
that though reduced for the present to drown his love in wine, he
was ready to make her a duchess whenever she was willing to elope
with him. In the mean time, though the King had the power of
keeping all competitors at a distance, he was not himself more
avance. Miss Stewart retained her power by standing most per-
tinaciously on the defensive, without actually driving’ him to
despair. When the Queen fell dangerously ill, she was imme-
diately surrounded by the obsequious and rapacious courtiers, and
regarded as her probable successor: the atrocious advice of the
Duke of Buckingham on this occasion, has been related in the
memoir of Queen Catherine. Miss Stewart, on her quarrel with
Lady Castlemaine, had made a great display of duty to the Queen,
who treated her with kindness, and seems to have placed some
confidence in her discretion. While the King pursued her with the
most undisguised and insulting attention, Miss Stewart certainly
avenged some of the wrongs of her mistress, and her whole sex,
by the dexterity with which she contrived to torment her accom-
plished but profligate lover. She stooped at times to very
equivocal compliances when afraid to lose him; at another moment
she would talk of throwing’ herself into a French convent: and
her airs and caprices, her alternate fits of hauteur and tenderness,
so agitated the King, that he sometimes appeared at the council-
board like a man distracted. He offered titles which were refused,
and presents—which were accepted; he set about reforming his
menage d’amour in compliance with her affected scruples and
pretended jealousy j he promised to give up Lady Castlemaine,
and to discard his singers and actresses, and other superfluous
ladies then on his establishmentin vain! till at a critical
moment the Chevalier De Grammont stepped in to his majesty’s
assistance. De Grammont had just received from Paris a certain
caliche, which he presented to the King. Such a caleche, so
light, so elegant in its form, so finished in all its appointments,