nd continual in
all she did, even in things the most trivial and indifferent, that I
have never seen anyone approach to, either in form or mind. Her wit was
copious and of all kinds. She was flattering, caressing, insinuating,
moderate, desirous to please for pleasing sake, and with charms
irresistible when she strove to persuade and win over. Accompanying all
this, she possessed a grandeur that encouraged rather than repelled. A
delightful tone of conversation, inexhaustible and always most
amusing--for she had seen many countries and peoples. A voice and way of
speaking extremely agreeable and full of sweetness. She had read much
and reflected much. She knew how to choose the best society, how to
receive it, and could even have held a Court; was polite and
distinguished; and, above all, careful never to take a step in advance
without dignity and discretion. She was eminently fitted for intrigue,
in which, from taste, she had passed her time at Rome. With much
ambition, but of that vast kind far above her sex and the common run of
men--a desire to occupy a great position and to govern. An inclination
to gallantry and personal vanity were her foibles, and these clung to
her until her latest days; consequently she dressed in a way that no
longer became her, and as she advanced in life departed further from
propriety in this particular. She was an ardent and excellent friend--of
a friendship that time and absence never enfeebled; and therefore an
implacable enemy, pursuing her hatred even to the infernal regions.
Whilst caring little for the means by which she gained her ends, she
tried as much as possible to reach them by honest means. Secret, not
only for herself, but for her friends, she was yet of a decorous gaiety,
and so governed her humours, that at all times and in everything she was
mistress of herself."

Such was the Princess des Ursins, as sketched by that painstaking
limner, Saint-Simon; throughout whose "Memoirs" many other scattered
traits are to be found of this celebrated woman, who so long and so
publicly governed the Court and Crown of Spain, and whose fate it was to
make so much stir in the world alike by her reign and her fall.

CHAPTER II.

SARAH, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH.

THROUGHOUT the political conflicts which agitated the Court of England
since the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough had left their native shores,
the Duke maintained a steady correspondence with his friends, but
expressed