egree of asperity, notwithstanding they are, by a strange
perversion of language, styled, all men of honour.]

Though the bride was no perfect beauty, yet, as there were none at
the court of Holland who eclipsed her, the Duke, during the first
endearments of matrimony, was so far from repenting of it, that he
seemed only to wish for the King's restoration that he might have an
opportunity of declaring it with splendour; but when he saw himself
enjoying a rank which placed him so near the throne; when the possession
of Miss Hyde afforded him no new charms; when England, so abounding in
beauties, displayed all that was charming and lovely in the court of the
King his brother; and when he considered he was the only prince, who,
from such superior elevation, had descended so low, he began to reflect
upon it. On the one hand, his marriage appeared to him particularly ill
suited in every respect: he recollected that Jermyn had not engaged him
in an intimacy with Miss Hyde, until he had convinced him, by several
different circumstances, of the facility of succeeding: he looked upon
his marriage as an infringement of that duty and obedience he owed
to the King; the indignation with which the court, and even the whole
kingdom, would receive the account of his marriage presented itself to
his imagination, together with the impossibility of obtaining the King's
consent to such an act, which for a thousand reasons he would be obliged
to refuse. On the other hand, the tears and despair of poor Miss Hyde
presented themselves; and still more than that, he felt a remorse
of conscience, the scruples of which began from that time to rise up
against him.

In the midst of this perplexity he opened his heart to Lord Falmouth,
and consulted with him what method he ought to pursue: He could not have
applied to a better man for his own interests, nor to a worse for Miss
Hyde's; for at first, Falmouth maintained not only that he was not
married, but that it was even impossible that he could ever have formed
such a thought; that any marriage was invalid for him, which was made
without the King's consent, even if the party was a suitable match:
but that it was a mere jest, even to think of the daughter of an
insignificant lawyer, whom the favour of his sovereign had lately made a
peer of the realm, without any noble blood, and chancellor, without
any capacity; that as for his scruples, he had only to give ear to some
gentlemen whom he could i