tual state of conflict,
and to set irreconcilable enmity between those who had the power of the
purse and those who had the power of the sword. With this view he bribed
and stimulated both parties in turn, pensioned at once the ministers
of the crown and the chiefs of the opposition, encouraged the court to
withstand the seditious encroachments of the Parliament, and conveyed to
the Parliament intimations of the arbitrary designs of the court.

One of the devices to which he resorted for the purpose of obtaining an
ascendency in the English counsels deserves especial notice. Charles,
though incapable of love in the highest sense of the word, was the
slave of any woman whose person excited his desires, and whose airs and
prattle amused his leisure. Indeed a husband would be justly derided
who should bear from a wife of exalted rank and spotless virtue half the
insolence which the King of England bore from concubines who, while they
owed everything to his bounty, caressed his courtiers almost before his
face. He had patiently endured the termagant passions of Barbara Palmer
and the pert vivacity of Eleanor Gwynn. Lewis thought that the
most useful envoy who could be sent to London, would be a handsome,
licentious, and crafty Frenchwoman. Such a woman was Louisa, a lady of
the House of Querouaille, whom our rude ancestors called Madam Carwell.
She was soon triumphant over all her rivals, was created Duchess of
Portsmouth, was loaded with wealth, and obtained a dominion which ended
only with the life of Charles.

The most important conditions of the alliance between the crowns were
digested into a secret treaty which was signed at Dover in May, 1670,
just ten years after the day on which Charles had landed at that very
port amidst the acclamations and joyful tears of a too confiding people.

By this treaty Charles bound himself to make public profession of the
Roman Catholic religion, to join his arms to those of Lewis for the
purpose of destroying the power of the United Provinces, and to employ
the whole strength of England, by land and sea, in support of the rights
of the House of Bourbon to the vast monarchy of Spain. Lewis, on the
other hand, engaged to pay a large subsidy, and promised that, if any
insurrection should break out in England, he would send an army at his
own charge to support his ally.

This compact was made with gloomy auspices. Six weeks after it had
been signed and sealed, the charming princess, wh