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by what I hear from the ladies, it is most visible to me, her infinite value, and respect unto you. Sir, I say not this to betray your belief, but from a true observation, and knowledge of this to be so: I tell you this, and must somewhat more, in way of admiration of the person of madam; for the impressions I had of her were but ordinary, but the amazement extraordinary, to find her, as I protest before God I did, the sweetest creature in France. Her growth is very little short of her age, and her wisdom infinitely beyond it. I heard her discourse with her mother, and the ladies about her, with extraordinary discretion and quickness. She dances (the which I am a witness of) as well as ever I saw any creature. They say she sings most sweetly; I am sure she looks so "."

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But whatever was her beauty, the temper of her mind was far from being amiable: she was bigotted to the Romish religion, industrious in promoting its interests, and an adviser and an encourager of the king in his most imprudent actions. Go, coward," said she to his majesty, (when about to seize the five members)" and pull these rogues out by the ears, or never see my face any more." When the civil war broke out, she went into Holland, and pawned the crown jewels, with which she bought ammunition, and sent to her husband. She soon afterwards returned, and gave him counsels most pernicious, as in the course of this work we shall see. Going again to Paris, she endeavoured to raise foreign forces for the king, though in vain; and, after his death, was reduced to great straits; insomuch that she requested

a Cabala, p. 312. b Echard. vol. I. p. 251. 12mo. Lond. 1723.

Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz,

structions given to lord Carlton, dispatched

cardinal Mazarine to solicit Cromwell, that he would at least return her dowry: but his solicitations were ineffectual. During the exile of the royal family, she was full of intrigues to get the ascendancy in her son's councils, and frequently quarrelled with his most faithful servants. Some time before the restoration, "the lord Jermyn had the queen greatly in awe of him, and had great interest with her concerns, was married to her, and had children by her." When Charles II. mounted the throne in reality, she came over to London; but again returned to Paris, where she died August 10, 1669.

The following extract will make a proper supplement to this note." The king's attachment to the counsels of the queen and her creatures, and his constant neglect of those of the truest friends of his own and the nation's real interest, is evident from the original letters of one of them, Sir Edward Nicholas, secretary of state to him and to his son and successor. I shall single out a few passages from these letters. In one to lord Hatton, then at Paris, dated Dec. 4, 1650, Sir Edward complains, that the counsels of the Louvre, where queen Henrietta resided, had been fatal to the crown of England. In another to the same lord, of the 1st of Feb. 1650-1, he expresses his fears, that those counsels, which ruined the father, and brought the good and hopeful king [Charles II.] into the sad condition in which he then was, would never do better. In one to the marquis of Ormond, of March 1, 1650-1, he observes, that for the king

* Voltaire's Age of Lewis XIV. p. 88. vol. I. 8vo. Lond. 1752. b Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, p. 4. 8vo. Lond. 1735. Formerly in the possession of William Nicholas, of West-Horsley in Surry, Esq. and now in that of Sir John Evelyn, of Wotton, in the same county, bart.

by him to Paris, dated at Wanstead, July 12, 1626 s.

[Charles II.] to put himself into the hands of those, whose counsels and conduct had been so apparently unfortunate to his blessed father and himself, was a prudence and policy that he could not fathom. And in one to lord Hatton, of the 7th of June, 1651, N.S. he prays, that the influence of those of the Louvre, which would be a great discouragement to honest men, might not prove as fatal to the young king as to his father"."

8" CHARLES REX.

"It is not unknown both to the French king and his mother, what unkindnesses and distastes have fallen between my wife and me, which hitherto I have borne with great patience, (as all the world knows) ever expecting and hoping an amendinent; knowing her to be but young, and perceiving it to be the ill crafty counsels of her servants, for advancing of their own ends, rather than her own inclination: for at my first meeting of her at Dover, I could not expect more testimonies of respect and love than she shewed: as, to give one instance, her first suit to me was, that she being young, and coming to a strange country, both by her years and ignorance of the customs of the place, might commit many errors, therefore that I would not be angry with her for her faults of ignorance, before I had with my instructions learned her to eschew them, and desired me in these cases to use no third person, but to tell her myself, when I found she did any thing amiss. I both granted her request and thanked her for it; but desired her she would use me as she had

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2 Appendix to the Inquiry into the share which K. Charles I. had in the transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan, 1755.

This representation of king Charles to his

desired me to use her, which she willingly promised me, which promise she never kept: for a little after this, madam St. George taking a distaste, because I would not let her ride with us in the coach, when there was women of better quality to fill her room, claiming it as her due, (which in England we think a strange thing) set my wife in such an humour of distaste against me, as from that very hour to this, no man can say that ever she used me two days together with so much respect as I deserved of her; but, by the contrary, has put so many disrespects upon me, as it were too long to set down all. Some I will relate: as I take it, it was at her first coming to Hamptoncourt, I sent some of my council to her, with those orders that were kept in the queen my mother's house, desiring she would command the counte of Tilliers, that the same might be kept in her's: her answer was, she hoped that I would give her leave to order her house as she list herself (now if she had said that she would speak with me, not doubting to give me satisfaction in it, I could have found no fault, whatsoever she would have said of this to myself; for I could only impute it to ignorance; but I could not imagine that she affronted me so, as to refuse me in such a thing publicly). After I heard this answer, I took a time (when I thought we had both best leisure to dispute it) to tell her calmly both her fault in the public denial, as her mistaking the business itself. She, instead of acknowledging her fault and mistaking, gave me so ill an answer, that I omit, not to be tedious, the relation of that discourse, having too much of that nature hereafter to relate. Many little neglects I will not take the pains to set down, as her eschewing to be in my company when I have any thing to speak to her, I

brother of France, and his sending home the

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must means her servant first, else I am sure to be denied; her neglect of the English tongue, and of the nation in general. I will also omit the affront she did me before my going to this last unhappy assembly of parliament, because there has been talk enough of that already, &c. and the author of it is before you in France. To be short, omitting all other passages, coming only to that which is recent in my memory; I having made a commission to make my wife's jointure, &c. to assign her those lands she is to live on, and it being brought to such a ripeness, that it wanted but my consent to the particulars then had chosen she, taking notice that it was now time to name the officers for her revenue, one night when I was a bed, put a paper in my hand, telling me it was a list of those that she desired to be of her revenue. I took it, and said I would read it next morning; but withal told her, that, by agreement in France, I had the naming of them. She said, there were both English and French in the note. I replied, that those English I thought fit to serve her, I would confirm; but for the French, it was impossible for them to serve her in that nature, Then she said, all those in the paper had brevets from her mother and herself, and that she could admit no other. Then I said, it was neither in her mother's power nor her's to admit any without my leave; and that if she stood upon that, whomsoever she recommended should not come in. Then she bad me plainly take my lands to myself; for if she had no power to put in whom she would in those places, she would have neither lands nor house of me, but bad me give her what I thought fit in pension. I bad her then remember to whom she spake, and told her, that she ought not to use me so. Then she fell into a passionate dis

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