Post down to the Alley, and tell old Manasses to buy | observe the regulations of a convent, were separated 20,000l. for me.-Forgive me, Plutus, I forgot to lay from the rest of the Duke's extensive mansion. He my sacrifice on thy shrine, and yet expected thy fa- lived in the age when what was called gallantry vours!-Fly post haste, Jerningham-for thy life, for warranted the most atrocious actions of deceit and thy life, for thy life!"* violence; as may be best illustrated by the catastrophe of an unfortunate actress, whose beauty attracted the attention of the last De Vere, Earl of Oxford. While her virtue defied his seductions, he rewarded for a success which occasioned the death of his victim, by the general applause of the men of wit and gallantry who filled the drawing-room of Charles. Buckingham had made provision in the interior of his ducal mansion for exploits of a similar nature; and the set of apartments which he now visited were alternately used to confine the reluctant, and to accommodate the willing. With hands and eyes uplifted, Jerningham left the apartment; and the Duke, without thinking a moment further on old or new intrigues-on the friendship he had formed, or the enmity he had provoked-ruined her under colour of a mock marriage, and was on the beauty whom he had carried off from her natural protectors, as well as from her lover-or on the monarch against whom he had placed himself in rivalship,-sat down to calculate chances with all the zeal of Demoivre, tired of the drudgery in half an hour, and refused to see the zealous agent whom he had employed in the city, because he was busily engaged in writing a new lampoon. CHAPTER XXXIX. Ah! changeful head, and fickle heart!--Progress of Discontent. No event is more ordinary in narratives of this nature, than the abduction of the female on whose fate the interest is supposed to turn; but that of Alice Bridgenorth was thus far particular, that she was spirited away by the Duke of Buckingham, more in contradiction than in the rivalry of passion; and that, as he made his first addresses to her at Chiffinch's, rather inthe spirit of rivalry to his Sovereign, than from any strong impression which her beauty had made on his affections, so he had formed the sudden plan of spiriting her away by means of his dependants, rather to perplex Christian, the King, Chiffinch, and all concerned, than because he had any particular desire for her society at his own mansion. Indeed, so far was this from being the case, that his Grace was rather surprised than delighted with the success of the enterprise which had made her an inmate there, although it is probable he might have thrown himself into an uncontrollable passion, had he learned its miscarriage instead of its success. Twenty-four hours passed over since he had returned to his own roof, before, notwithstanding sundry hints from Jerningham, he could even determine on the exertion necessary to pay his fair captive a visit; and then it was with the internal reluctance of one who can only be stirred from indolence by novelty. "I wonder what made me plague myself about this wench," said he, "and doom myself to encounter all the hysterical rhapsodies of a country Phillis, with her head stuffed with her grandmother's lessons about virtue and the Bible-book, when the finest and best-bred women in town may be had upon more easy terms. It is a pity one cannot mount the victor's car of triumph without having a victory to boast of; yet, faith, it is what most of our modern gallants do, though it would not become Buckingham.-Wel', I must see her," he concluded, "though it were but to rid the house of her. The Portsmouth will not hear of her being set at liberty near Charles, so much is she afraid of a new fair seducing the old sinner from his allegiance. So how the girl is to be disposed of for I shall have little fancy to keep her here, and she is too wealthy to be sent down to Cliefden as a housekeeper is a matter to be thought on." Being now destined for the former purpose, the key was delivered to the Duke by a hooded and spectacled old lady, who sat reading a devout book in the outer hall which divided these apartments (usually called the Nunnery) from the rest of the house. This experienced dowager acted as mistress of the ceremonies on such occasions, and was the trusty depositary of more intrigues than were known to any dozen of her worshipful calling besides. As sweet a linnet," she said, as she undid the outward door, as ever sung in a cage." "I was afraid she might have been more for moping than for singing, Dowlas," said the Duke. 66 "Till yesterday she was so, please your Grace," answered Dowlas; or, to speak sooth, till early this morning, we heard of nothing but Lachrymæ. But the air of your noble Grace's house is favourable to singing-birds; and to-day matters have been a-much mended." "Tis sudden, dame," said the Duke; "and 'tis something strange, considering that I have never visited her, that the pretty trembler should have been so soon reconciled to her fate." "Ah, your Grace has such magic, that it communicates itself to your very walls; as wholesome scripture says, Exodus, first and seventh, 'It cleaveth to the walls and the door-posts." "You are too partial, Dame Dowlas," said the Duke of Buckingham. "Not a word but truth," said the dame; "and I wish I may be an outcast from the fold of the lambs but I think this damsel's very frame has changed since she was under your Grace's roof. Methinks she hath a lighter form, a finer step, a more displayed ankle-I cannot tell, but I think there is a change. But, lack-a-day, your Grace knows I am as old as I am trusty, and that my eyes wax something uncertain." "Especially when you wash them with a cup of canary, Dame Dowlas," answered the Duke, who was aware that temperance was not amongst the cardinal virtues which were most familiar to the old lady's practice. "Was it canary, your Grace said?-Was it indeed with canary, that your Grace should have supposed me to have washed my eyes?" said the offended matron. "I am sorry that your Grace should know me no better." "I crave your pardon, dame," said the Duke, shaking aside, fastidiously, the grasp which, in the earnestness of her exculpation, Madam Dowlas had clutched upon his sleeve. "I crave your pardon.Your nearer approach has convinced me of my erroneous imputation-I should have said nantz, not He then called for such a dress as might set off his natural good mien-a compliment which he considered as due to his own merit; for as to any thing farther, he went to pay his respects to his fair prisoner with almost as little zeal in the cause, as a gal-canary." lant to fight a duel in which he has no warmer interest than the maintenance of his reputation as a man of honour. So saying, he walked forward into the inner apartments, which were fitted up with an air of voluptuous magnificence. The set of apartments consecrated to the use of "The dame said true, however," said the proud dethose favourites who occasionally made Bucking- viser and proprietor of the splendid mansion-“A ham's mansion their place of abode, and who were, country Phillis might well reconcile herself to such a so far as liberty was concerned, often required to prison as this, even without a skilful bird-fancier to Stock-jobbing, as it is called, that is, dealing in shares of touch a bird-call. But I wonder where she can be, this monopolies, patents, and joint stock companies of every descrip-rural Phidele. Is it possible she can have retreated, tion, was at least as common in Charles II.'s time as our own like a despairing commandant, into her bedchamber, and as the exercise of ingenuity in this way promised a road to wealth without the necessity of industry, it was then much the very citadel of the place, without even an attempt pursued by dissolute courtiers. to defend the out-works?" As he made this reflection, he passed through an antechamber and little eating parlour, exquisitely furnished, and hung with excellent paintings of the Venetian school. Beyond these lay a withdrawing-room, fitted up in a style of still more studied elegance. The windows were darkened with painted glass, of such a deep and rich colour, as made the mid-day beams, which found their way into the apartment, imitate the rich colours of sunset; and, in the celebrated expression of the poet, "taught light to counterfeit a gloom." Buckingham's feelings and taste had been too much, and too often, and too readily gratified, to permit him, in the general case, to be easily accessible, even to those pleasures which it had been the business of his life to pursue. The hackneyed voluptuary is like the jaded epicure, the mere listlessness of whose appetite becomes at length a sufficient penalty for having made it the principal object of his enjoyment and cultivation. Yet novelty has always some charms, and uncertainty has more. The doubt how he was to be received-the change of mood which his prisoner was said to have evinced -the curiosity to know how such a creature as Alice Bridgenorth had been described, was likely to bear herself under the circumstances in which she was so unexpectedly placed, had upon Buckingham, the effect of exciting unusual interest. On his own part, he had none of those feelings of anxiety with which a man, even of the most vulgar mind, comes to the presence of the female whom he wishes to please, far less the more refined sentiments of love, respect, desire, and awe, with which the more refined lover approaches the beloved object. He had been, to use an expressive French phrase, too completely blasé even from his earliest youth, to permit him now to experience the animal eagerness of the one, far less the more sentimental pleasure of the other. It is no small aggravation of this jaded and uncomfortable state of mind, that the voluptuary cannot renounce the pursuits with which he is satiated, but must continue, for his character's sake, or from the mere force of habit, to take all the toil, fatigue and danger of the chase, while he has so little real interest in the termnination. Buckingham, therefore, felt it due to his reputation as a successful hero of intrigue, to pay his addresses to Alice Bridgenorth with dissembled eagerness; and, as he opened the door of the inner apartment, he paused to consider, whether the tone of gallantry, or that of passion, was fittest to use on the occasion. This delay enabled him to hear a few notes of a lute, touched with exquisite skill, and accompanied by the still sweeter strains of a female voice, which without executing any complete melody, seemed to sport itself in rivalship of the silver sound of the instru ment. A creature so well educated," said the Duke, "with the sense she is said to possess, would, rustic as she is, laugh at the assumed rants of Oroondates. It is the vein of Dorimont-once, Buckingham, thine own-that must here do the feat, besides that the part is easier." So thinking, he entered the room with that easy grace which characterized the gay courtiers among whom he flourished, and approached the fair tenant, whom he found seated near a table covered with books and music, and having on her left hand the large half-open casement, dim with stained glass, admitting only a doubtful light into this lordly retiring room, which, hung with the richest tapestry of the Gobelines, and ornamented with piles of china and splendid mirrors, seemed like a bower built for a prince to receive his bride. you to perceive that what it concealed was rarely lovely, yet induced the imagination even to enhance the charms it shaded. Such part of the dress as could be discovered, was, like the veil and the trowsers, in the Oriental taste; a rich turban, and splendid caftan, were rather indicated than distinguished through the folds of the former. The whole attire argued at least coquetry on the part of a fair one, who must have expected, from her situation, a visiter of some pretension; and induced Buckingham to smile internally at Christian's account of the extreme simplicity and purity of his niece. He approached the lady en cavalier, and addressed her with the air of being conscious, while he acknowledged his offences, that his condescending to do so formed a sufficient apology for them. "Fair Mistress Alice," he said, "I am sensible how deeply I ought to sue for pardon for the mistaken zeal of my servants, who, seeing you deserted and exposed without protection during an unlucky affray, took upon them to bring you under the roof of one who would expose his life rather than suffer you to sustain a moment's anxiety. Was it my fault that those around me should have judged it necessary to interfere for your preservation; or that, aware of the interest I must take in you, they have detained you till I could myself, in personal attendance, receive your commands?" "That attendance has not been speedily rendered, my lord," answered the lady. "I have been a prisoner for two days-neglected, and left to the charge of menials." "How say you, lady?-Neglected !" exclaimed the Duke. "By heaven, if the best in my household has failed in his duty, I will discard him on the instant!" "I complain of no lack of courtesy from your servants my lord," she replied; "but methinks it had been but complaisant in the Duke himself to explain to me earlier wherefore he has had the boldness to detain me a state prisoner." "And can the divine Alice doubt," said Buckingham, "that, had time and space, those cruel enemies to the flight of passion, given permission, the instant in which you crossed your vassal's threshold had seen its devoted master at your feet, who hath thought, since he saw you, of nothing but the charms which that fatal morning placed before him at Chiffinch's?" "I understand, then, my lord," said the lady, "that you have been absent, and have had no part in the restraint which has been exercised upon me?" Absent on the King's command, lady, and employed in the discharge of his duty," answered Buckingham without hesitation. "What could I do?-The moment you left Chiffinch's, his Majesty commanded me to the saddle in such haste, that I had no time to change my satin buskins for ridingboots. If my absence has occasioned you a moment of inconvenience, blame the inconsiderate zeal of those, who, seeing me depart from London, half distracted at my separation from you, were willing to contribute their unmannered, though well-meant exertions, to preserve their master from despair, by retaining the fair Alice within his reach. To whom, indeed, could they have restored you? He whom you selected as your champion is in prison, or fled-your father absent from town-your uncle in the north. To Chiffinch's house you had expressed your wellfounded aversion; and what fitter asylum remained than that of your devoted slave, where you must ever reign a queen?" "An imprisoned one," said the lady. "I desire not such royalty." "Alas! how wilfully you misconstrue me!" said the Duke, kneeling on one knee; "and what right The splendid dress of the inmate corresponded can you have to complain of a few hours' gentle with the taste of the apartment which she occupied, restraint-you, who destine so many to hopeless and partook of the Oriental costume which the much-captivity! Be merciful for once, and withdraw that admired Roxalana had then brought into fashion. envious veil; for the divinities are ever most cruel A slender foot and ankle, which escaped from the wide trowser of richly ornamented and embroidered blue strain, was the only part of her person distinctly seen; the rest was enveloped from head to foot, in a long veil of silver gauze, which, like a feathery and light mist on a beautiful landscape, suffered VOL. IV. 2 K This case is not without precedent. Among the jealousies and fears expressed by the Long Parliament, they insisted much upon an agent for the King departing for the continent white buskins, to wit, and black silk pantaloons-for an equip. so abruptly, that he had not time to change his court dressment more suitable to travel with. when they deliver their oracles from such clouded the Duke," when didst thou pass for a dancing recesses. Suffer at least my rash hand"fairy?-some such imp thou wert, not many days since." "My sister you may have seen-my twin sister; but not me, my lord," answered Zarah. "Indeed," said the Duke, "that duplicate of thine, if it was not thy very self, was possessed with a dumb spirit as thou with a talking one. I am still in the mind that you are the same; and that Satan, always so powerful with your sex, had art enough, on our former meeting, to make thee hold thy tongue." "Believe what you will of it, my lord," replied Zarah, it cannot change the truth.-And now, my lord, I bid you farewell. Have you any commands to Mauritania?" "I will save your Grace that unworthy trouble," said the lady, haughtily; and rising up, she flung back over her shoulders the veil which shrouded her, saying, at the same time, "Look on me, my Lord Duke, and see if these be indeed the charms which have made on your Grace an impression so powerful." Buckingham did look; and the effect produced on him by surprise was so strong, that he rose hastily from his knee, and remained for a few seconds as if he had been petrified. The figure that stood before him had neither the height nor the rich shape of Alice Bridgenorth; and, though perfectly well made, was so slightly formed, as to seem almost infantine. Her dress was three or four short vests of embroidered satin, disposed one over the other, of different colours, or rather different shades of similar colours; for strong contrast was carefully avoided. These opened in front, so as to show part of the throat and neck, partially obscured by an inner covering of the finest lace; over the uppermost vest was worn a sort of mantle, or coat of rich fur. A small but magnificent turban was carelessly placed on her head, from under which flowed a profusion of coal-black tresses, which Cleopatra might have envied. The taste and splen-"Your resentment must be a petty passion indeed, if dour of the Eastern dress corresponded with the it could stoop to such a helpless object as I am; and complexion of the lady's face, which was brunette, for your love-good lack! good lack!" of a shade so dark as might almost have served an Indian. Amidst a set of features, in which rapid and keen expression made amends for the want of regular beauty, the essential points of eyes as bright as diamonds, and teeth as white as pearls, did not escape the Duke of Buckingham, a professed connoisseur in female charms. In a word, the fanciful and singular female who thus unexpectedly produced herself before him, had one of those faces which are never seen without making an impression; which, when removed, are long after remembered; and for which, in our idleness, we are tempted to invent a hundred histories, that we may please our fancy by supposing the features under the influence of different kinds of emotion. Every one must have in recollection countenances of this kind, which, from a captivating and stimulating originality of express on, abide longer in the memory, and are more seductive to the imagination, than even regular beauty. "My Lord Duke," said the lady, "it seems the lifting of my veil has done the work of magic upon your Grace. Alas, for the captive princess, whose nod was to command a vassal so costly! She runs, methinks, no slight chance of being turned out of doors, like a second Cinderella, to seek her fortune among lackeys and lightermen." "I am astonished!" said the Duke. "That villain, Jerningham-I will have the scoundrel's blood!" "Nay, never abuse Jerningham for the matter," said the Unknown; "but lament your own unhappy engagements. While you, my Lord Duke, were posting northward, in white satin buskins, to toil in the King's affairs, the right and lawful princess sat weeping in sables in the uncheered solitude to which your absence condemned her. Two days she was disconsolate in vain; on the third came an African enchantress to change the scene for her, and the person for your Grace. Methinks, my lord, this adventure will tell but ill, when some faithful squire shall recount or record the gallant adventures of the second Duke of Buckingham." 'Fairly bit, and bantered to boot," said the Duke -"the monkey has a turn for satire, too, by all that is piquante.-Hark ye, fair princess, how dared you adventure on such a trick as you have been accomplice to?" "Dare, my lord!" answered the stranger; "put the question to others, not to one who fears nothing." "By my faith, I believe so; for thy front is bronzed by nature. Hark ye once more, mistress-What is your name and condition?" "My condition I have told you-I am a Mauritanian sorceress by profession, and my name is Zarah," replied the Eastern maiden. But methinks that face, shape, and eyes"-said "Tarry a little, my princess," said the Duke; "and remember, that you have voluntarily entered yourself as pledge for another; and are justly subjected to any penalty which it is my pleasure to exact. None must brave Buckingham with impunity." "I am in no hurry to depart, if your Grace hath any commands for me.' "What! are you neither afraid of my resentment, nor of my love, fair Zarah?" said the Duke. "Of neither, by this glove," answered the lady. "And why good lack, with such a tone of contempt, lady?" said the Duke, piqued in spite of himself. "Think you Buckingham cannot love, or has never been beloved in return?" "He may have thought himself beloved," said the maiden; "but by what slight creatures!-things whose heads could be rendered giddy by a playhouse rant-whose brains were only filled with red-heeled shoes and satin buskins--and who run altogether mad on the argument of a George and a star." "And are there no such frail fair ones in your climate, most scornful princess?" said the Duke. "There are," said the lady; "but men rate them as parrots and monkeys-things without either sense or soul, head or heart. The nearness we bear to the sun has purified, while it strengthens, our passions. The icicles of your frozen climate shall as soon hammer hot bars into ploughshares, as shall the foppery and folly of your pretended gallantry make an instant's impression on a breast like mine." "You speak like one who knows what passion is," said the Duke. Sit down, fair lady, and grieve not that I detain you. Who can consent to part with a tongue of so much melody, or an eye of such expressive eloquence!-You have known, then, what it is to love?" "I know-no matter if by experience, or through the report of others--but I do know, that to love as I would love, would be to yield not an iota to avarice, not one inch to vanity, not to sacrifice the slightest feeling to interest or to ambition; but to give up ALL to fidelity of heart and reciprocal affection." And how many women, think you, are capable of feeling such disinterested passion?" More, by thousands, than there are men who merit it," answered Zarah. Alas! how often do you see the female, pale, and wretched, and degraded, still following with patient constancy the footsteps of some predominating tyrant, and submitting to all his injustice with the endurance of a faithful and misused spaniel, which prizes a look from his master, though the surliest groom that ever disgraced humanity, more than all the pleasures which the world besides can furnish him? Think what such would be to one who merited and repaid her devotion." "Perhaps the very reverse," said the Duke; "and for your simile, I can see little resemblance. I cannot charge my spaniel with any perfidy; but for my mistresses-to confess truth, I must always be in a cursed hurry if I would have the credit of changing them before they leave me." "And they serve you but rightly, my lord," answered the lady; "for what are you?-Nay, frown not; for you must hear the truth for once. Nature has done its part, and made a fair outside, and courtly education hath added its share. You are noble, it is CHAP. XL.J the accident of birth-handsome, it is the caprice of Nature-generous, because to give is more easy than to refuse-well-apparelled, it is to the credit of your tailor-well-natured in the main, because you have youth and health-brave, because to be otherwise were to be degraded-and witty, because you cannot help it." The Duke darted a glance on one of the large mirrors. "Noble, and handsome, and court-like, generous, well-attired, good-humoured, brave, and witty! -You allow me more, madam, than I have the slightest pretension to, and surely, enough to make my way, at some point at least, to female favour." I have neither allowed you a heart nor a head," said Zarah, calmly.-"Nay, never redden as if you would fly at me. I say not but nature may have given you both; but folly has confounded the one, and selfishness perverted the other. The man whom I call deserving the name, is one whose thoughts and exertions are for others, rather than himself,-whose high purpose is adopted on just principles, and never abandoned while heaven and earth affords means of accomplishing it. He is one who will neither seek an indirect advantage by a specious road, nor take an evil path to gain a real good purpose. Such a man were one for whom a woman's heart should beat constant while he breathes, and break when he dies." She spoke with so much energy that the water sparkled in her eyes, and her cheek coloured with the vehemence of her feelings. "You speak," said the Duke, " as if you had yourself a heart which could pay the full tribute to the merit which you describe so warmly." "And have I not?" she said, laying her hand on her bosom. "Here beats one that would bear me out in what I have said, whether in life or in death!" "Were it in my power," said the Duke, "who began to get farther interested in his visiter than he could at first have thought possible-"Were it in my power to deserve such faithful attachment, methinks it should be my care to require it." "Your wealth, your titles, your reputation as a gallant-all you possess, were too little to merit such sincere affection." "Come, fair lady," said the Duke, a good deal piqued, "do not be quite so disdainful. Bethink you, that if your love be as pure as coined gold, still a poor fellow like myself may offer you an equivalent in silver-The quantity of my affection must make up for its quality." "But I am not carrying my affection to market, my lord; and therefore I need none of the base coin you offer in change for it." "How do I know that, my fairest ?" said the Duke. "This is the realm of Paphos-You have invaded it, with what purpose you best know; but I think with none consistent with your present assumption of cruelty. Come, come-eyes that are so intelligent can laugh with delight, as well as gleam with scorn and anger. You are here a waif on Cupid's manor, and I must seize on you in name of the deity." Finding all his search in vain, the Duke of Buck- "A defiance, by Jupiter!" said the Duke. "You mouth it bravely," said the Duke; "but never They had been hitherto divided from each other by a long narrow table, which, placed in the recess of the large casement we have mentioned, had formed a sort of barrier on the lady's side, against the adventurous gallant. The Duke went hastily to remove it as he poke; but, attentive to all his motions, his visiter inStantly darted through the half open window. Buckingham uttered a cry of horror and surprise, having no doubt, at first, that she had precipitated Ardent, and dire, spring from no petty cause.-Albion. THE quarrels between man and wife are proverbial; but let not these honest folks think that connexions of a less permanent nature are free from similar jars. The frolic of the Duke of Buckingham, and the subsequent escape of Alice Bridgenorth, had kindled fierce dissension in Chiffinch's family, when, on his arrival in town, he learned these two stunning events: "I tell you," he said to his obliging helpmate, who seemed but little moved by all that he could say on the subject, "that your d-d carelessness has ruined the work of years." 25 "I think it is the twentieth time you have said so," replied the dame; "and without such frequent assurance, I was quite ready to believe that a very trifling matter would overset any scheme of yours, however long thought of." How on earth could you have the folly to let the Duke into the house when you expected the King?" said the irritated courtier. "Lord, Chiffinch," answered the lady, "ought not you to ask the porter, rather than me, that sort of question?-I was putting on my cap to receive his Majesty." With the address of a madge-howlet," said Chiffinch, "and in the mean while you gave the cat the cream to keep. "Indeed, Chiffinch," said the lady, "these jaunts to the country do render you excessively vulgar! there is a brutality about your very boots! nay, your muslin ruffles, being somewhat soiled, give to your knuckles a sort of rural rusticity, as I may call it." "It were a good deed," muttered Chiffinch, "to make both boots and knuckles bang the folly and affectation out of thee." Then speaking aloud, he added, like a man who would fain break off an argument, by extorting from his adversary a confession that he has reason on his side, "I am sure, Kate, you must be sensible that our all depends on his Majesty's pleasure." "Leave that to me," said she; "I know how to pleasure his Majesty better than you can teach me. Do you think his Majesty is booby enough to cry like a school-boy because his sparrow has flown away? His Majesty has better taste. I am surprised at you, Chiffinch," she added, drawing herself up, "who were once thought to know the points of a fine woman, that you should have made such a roaring about this country wench. Why, she has not even the country quality of being plump as a barn-door fowl, but is more like a Dunstable lark, that one must crack bones and all if you would make a mouthful of it. What signifies whence she came, or where she goes? There will be those behind that are much more worthy of his Majesty's condescending attention, even when the Duchess of Portsmouth takes the frumps." "You mean your neighbour, Mistress Nelly," said her worthy helpmate; "but, Kate, her date is out. Wit she has, let her keep herself warm with it in worse company, for the cant of a gang of strollers is not language for a prince's chamber." "It is no matter what I mean, or whom I mean," said Mrs. Chiffinch; "but I tell you, Tom Chiffinch, that you will find your master quite consoled for loss of the piece of prudish puritanism that you would needs saddle him with; as if the good man were not plagued enough with them in Parliament but you must, forsooth, bring them into his very bedchamber." "Well, Kate," said Chiffinch, "if a man were to speak all the sense of the seven wise masters, a woman would find nonsense enough to overwhelm him with; so I shall say no more, but that I would to Heaven I may find the King in no worse humour than you describe him. I am commanded to attend him down the river to the Tower to-day, where he is to make some survey of arms and stores. They are clever fellows who contrive to keep Rowley from engaging in business, for, by my word, he has a turn for it." In Evelyn's Memoirs is the following curious passage respecting Nell Gwyn, who is hinted at in the text:-"I walked with him (King Charles II.] through Saint James' Park to the garden, where I both saw and heard a very familiar discourse between... [the King] and Mrs. Nelly, as they called her, an intimate comedian, she looking out of her garden on a terrace at the top of the wall, and [the King] standing on the green walk under it. I was heartily sorry at this scene."-EVELYN'S Memoirs, vol. i. p. 418. "I warrant you," said Chiffinch the female, nodding, but rather to her own figure reflected from a mirror, than to her politic husband," I warrant you we will find means of occupying him that will sufficiently fill up his time." "On my honour, Kate," said the male Chiffinch, "I find you strangely altered, and, to speak truth, grown most extremely opinionative. I shall be happy if you have good reason for your confidence." The dame smiled superciliously, but deigned no other answer, unless this were one,-"I shall order a boat to go upon the Thames to-day with the royal party. Take care what you do, Kate; there are none dare presume so far but women of the first rank. Duchess of Bolton-of Buckingham—of”"Who cares for a list of names? why may not I be as forward as the greatest B. amongst your string of them?" "Nay, faith, thou mayst match the greatest B. in Court already," answered Chiffinch; so e'en take thy own course of it. But do not let Chaubert forget to get some collation ready, and a souper au petit couvert, in case it should be commanded for the evening." 'Ay, there your boasted knowledge of Court matters begins and ends.--Chiffinch, Chaubert, and Company-dissolve that partnership, and you break Tom Chiffinch for a courtier." "Amen, Kate," replied Chiffinch; "and let me tell you, it is as safe to rely on another person's fingers as on our own wit. But I must give orders for the water.-If you will take the pinnace, there are the cloth-of-gold cushions in the chapel may serve to cover the benches for the day. They are never wanted where they lie, so you may make free with them too." Madam Chiffinch accordingly mingled with the flotilla which attended the King on his voyage down the Thames, amongst whom was the Queen, attended by some of the principal ladies of the Court. The little plump Cleopatra, dressed to as much advantage as her taste could devise, and seated upon her embroidered cushions like Venus in her shell, neglected nothing that effrontery and minauderie could perform to draw upon herself some portion of the King's observation; but Charles was not in the vein, and did not even pay her the slightest passing attention of any kind, until her boatmen, having ventured to approach nearer to the Queen's barge than etiquette permitted, received a peremptory order to back their oars, and fall out of the royal procession. Madam Chiffinch cried for spite, and transgressed Solomon's warning, by cursing the King in her heart; but had no better course than to return to Westminster, and direct Chaubert's preparations for the evening. In the mean time, the royal barge paused at the Tower; and, accompanied by a laughing train of ladies and of courtiers, the gay Monarch made the echoes of the old prison-towers ring with the unwonted sounds of mirth and revelry. As they as cended from the river side to the centre of the building, where the fine old Keep of William the Conqueror, called the White Tower, predominates over the exterior defences, Heaven only knows how many gallant jests, good or bad, were run on the comparison of his Majesty's state-prison to that of Cupid, and what killing similes were drawn between the ladies' eyes and the guns of the fortress, which, spoken with a fashionable congée, and listened to with a smile from a fair lady, formed the fine conversation of the day. This gay swarm of flutterers did not, however, attend close on the King's person, though they had accompanied him upon his party on the river. Charles, who often formed manly and sensible resolutions, though he was too casily diverted from them by indolence or pleasure, had some desire to make himself personally acquainted with the state of the military stores, arms, &c., of which the Tower was then, as now, the magazine; and, although he had brought with him the usual number of his courtiers, only three or four attended him on the scrutiny which he intended. Whilst, therefore, the rest of the train amused |