on; but the Duke
of Buckingham, a still greater fool than he, though more addicted to
raillery, gave him the additional name of Peter of the Wood. He was so
enraged at this, that, after many fruitless complaints and ineffectual
menaces, poor Pedro de Silva was obliged to leave England, while the
happy duke kept possession of a Portuguese nymph more hideous than the
queen's maids of honour, whom he had taken from him, as well as two of
his names. Besides these, there were six chaplains, four bakers, a Jew
perfumer, and a certain officer, probably without an office, who called
himself her highness's barber. Katharine de Braganza was far from
appearing with splendour in the charming court where she came to reign;
however, in the end she was pretty successful.

[Lord Clarendon says, "the queen had beauty and wit enough to make
herself agreeable to him (the king); and it is very certain, that,
at their first meeting, and for some time after, the King had very
good satisfaction in her. . . . Though she was of years enough
to have had more experience of the world, and of as much wit as
could be wished, and of a humour very agreeable at some seasons,
yet, she had been bred, according to the mode and discipline of her
country, in a monastery, where she had only seen the women who
attended her, and conversed with the religious who resided there;
and, without doubt, in her inclinations, was enough disposed to have
been one of that number: and from this restraint she was called out
to be a great queen, and to a free conversation in a court that was
to be upon the matter new formed, and reduced from the manners of a
licentious age to the old rules and limits which had been observed
in better times; to which regular and decent conformity the present
disposition of men or women was not enough inclined to submit, nor
the king enough disposed to exact."--Continuation of Lord
Clarendon's Life, p. 167. After some struggle, she submitted to the
king's licentious conduct, and from that time lived upon easy terms
with him, until his death. On the 30th March, 1692, she left
Somerset-house, her usual residence, and retired to Lisbon, where
she died, 31st December, 1705, N. S.]

The Chevalier de Grammont, who had been long known to the royal family,
and to most of the gentlemen of the court, had only to get acquainted
with the ladies; and for this he wanted no interpreter: they