DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0312
262 THE COUNTESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND.
the bosom of the lady, and Montagu began to cherish hopes that
attentions of different kinds, and with different views, might some
time or other prove acceptable.*
Ralph Lord Montagu, afterwards Earl and Duke of Montagu,
had been appointed ambassador to the French court in 1669. He
was a man of splendid habits, eager and insatiable in acquiring
wealth, and not very scrupulous, it is said, with regard to the
means; but liberal to others, magnificent and even lavish in his
expenditure.f He had transcendent abilities as a statesman, and
possessed a cultivated and refined taste in the arts, particularly
painting and architecture. De Grammont describes him as “ pen
dangereux pour sa figure,” but almost irresistible from his fasci-
nating manners, his assiduity, and his vivacity. About two years
after her first lord’s death, Montagu began to pay Lady North-
umberland marked devotion. He followed her to Aix in the winter
of the year 1672. Madame de Sevigne was then in Provence on
a visit to her daughter, and Madame de la Fayette thus writes to
her from Paris : “ Voila un paquet que je vous envoie pour Ma-
dame de Northumberland. On dit ici que si M. de Montagu n’a
pas un heureux succes de son voyage, il passera en Italie, pour faire
voir que ce n’est pas pour les beaux yeux de Madame de North-
umberland qu’il court le pays : mandez nous un pen ce que vous
verrez de cette affaire, et comme il sera traite.” This is an amusing’
instance of that excessive vanity which characterized Montagu. It
would have been interesting to learn what Madame de Sevigne
* In the Life of James II. occurs the following entry, which I am unable
farther to elucidate. “ July 13,1672. Buckingham proposed to the King to get
Lady Percy (the infant heiress of Earl Josceline) for Lord Harry, (the king’s
natural son, afterwards Duke of Grafton). Buckingham at the same time offered
to the Countess of Northumberland, to get the King to consent that he should
command the Duke of York to marry her.”
t His want of principle in money matters, (and also in other matters,) was
contrasted with exceeding generosity and high feeling in particular cases: for
instance, when he regained by a law process an estate which had been illegally
■wrested from his family, he remitted to the defendant, Lord Preston, the arrears
and costs of suit, thinking the loss of the estate sufficient.—See Granger.
the bosom of the lady, and Montagu began to cherish hopes that
attentions of different kinds, and with different views, might some
time or other prove acceptable.*
Ralph Lord Montagu, afterwards Earl and Duke of Montagu,
had been appointed ambassador to the French court in 1669. He
was a man of splendid habits, eager and insatiable in acquiring
wealth, and not very scrupulous, it is said, with regard to the
means; but liberal to others, magnificent and even lavish in his
expenditure.f He had transcendent abilities as a statesman, and
possessed a cultivated and refined taste in the arts, particularly
painting and architecture. De Grammont describes him as “ pen
dangereux pour sa figure,” but almost irresistible from his fasci-
nating manners, his assiduity, and his vivacity. About two years
after her first lord’s death, Montagu began to pay Lady North-
umberland marked devotion. He followed her to Aix in the winter
of the year 1672. Madame de Sevigne was then in Provence on
a visit to her daughter, and Madame de la Fayette thus writes to
her from Paris : “ Voila un paquet que je vous envoie pour Ma-
dame de Northumberland. On dit ici que si M. de Montagu n’a
pas un heureux succes de son voyage, il passera en Italie, pour faire
voir que ce n’est pas pour les beaux yeux de Madame de North-
umberland qu’il court le pays : mandez nous un pen ce que vous
verrez de cette affaire, et comme il sera traite.” This is an amusing’
instance of that excessive vanity which characterized Montagu. It
would have been interesting to learn what Madame de Sevigne
* In the Life of James II. occurs the following entry, which I am unable
farther to elucidate. “ July 13,1672. Buckingham proposed to the King to get
Lady Percy (the infant heiress of Earl Josceline) for Lord Harry, (the king’s
natural son, afterwards Duke of Grafton). Buckingham at the same time offered
to the Countess of Northumberland, to get the King to consent that he should
command the Duke of York to marry her.”
t His want of principle in money matters, (and also in other matters,) was
contrasted with exceeding generosity and high feeling in particular cases: for
instance, when he regained by a law process an estate which had been illegally
■wrested from his family, he remitted to the defendant, Lord Preston, the arrears
and costs of suit, thinking the loss of the estate sufficient.—See Granger.