ods; these contained upwards of two thousand
rooms, most of which were small, and many of which were without doors.
The buildings were intersected by grassy squares, where fountains
played, statues were grouped, and dials shadowed the passing hour. At
hand stood St. James's Park, with its fair meadows and leafy trees;
close by flowed the placid Thames, bearing heavily laden lighters and
innumerable barges. Attached to these dwellings, and forming part of
the palace, stood the great banquet hall, erected from designs by Inigo
Jones for James I. Here audiences to ambassadors, state balls, and
great banquets were held. The ceiling was painted by Rubens, and was,
moreover, handsomely moulded and richly gilt. Above the entrance-door
stood a statue of Charles I., "whose majestic mien delighted the
spectator;" Whilst close by one of the windows were the ineradicable
stains of blood, marking the spot near which he had been beheaded.

Now in the train of the queen mother there had travelled from France
"a most pretty sparke of about fourteen years," whom Mr. Pepys plainly
terms "the king's bastard," but who was known to the court as young
Mr. Crofts. This little gentleman was son of Lucy Walters, "a brown,
beautiful, bold creature," who had the distinction of being first
mistress to the merry monarch. That he was his offspring the king
entertained no doubt, though others did; inasmuch as young Mr. Crofts
grew to resemble, "even to the wart on his face," Colonel Robert Sidney,
whose paramour Lucy Walters had been a brief while before his majesty
began an intrigue with her. Soon after the boy's birth that beautiful
woman abandoned herself to pleasures, in which the king had no
participation. He therefore parted from her; had her son placed under
the guardianship of Lord Crofts, whose name he bore, and educated by the
Peres de l'Oratoire at Paris. The while he was continually at the court
of the queen mother, who regarded him as her grandson, and who, by the
king's command, now brought him into England. The beauty of his face
and grace of his figure could not be exceeded, whilst his manner was
as winning as his air was noble. Moreover, his accomplishments were
numerous; he danced to perfection, sang with sweetness, rode with skill;
and so gallant was his nature that he became at this early age, as
Hamilton affirms, "the universal terror of husbands and lovers."

The king betrayed the greatest affection for him, and took exceeding