thing which could preserve him. In the end, it very plainly
appeared that her consent went along with her eyes to the last degree of
indiscretion.

It was between these two goddesses that the inclinations of the Chevalier
de Grammont stood wavering, and between whom his presents were divided.
Perfumed gloves, pocket looking-glasses, elegant boxes, apricot paste,
essences, and other small wares of love, arrived every week from Paris,
with some new suit for himself; but, with regard to more solid presents,
such as ear-rings, diamonds, brilliants, and bright guineas, all this was
to be met with of the best sort in London, and the ladies were as well
pleased with them as if they had been brought from abroad.

Miss Stewart's beauty began at this time to be celebrated.

[Frances, Duchess of Richmond, daughter of Walter Stewart, son of
Walter, Baron of Blantyre, and wife of Charles Stewart, Duke of
Richmond and Lennox: a lady of exquisite beauty, if justly
represented in a puncheon made by Roettiere, his majesty's engraver
of the mint, in order to strike a medal of her, which exhibits the
finest face that perhaps was ever seen. The king was supposed to be
desperately in love with her; and it became common discourse, that
there was a design on foot to get him divorced from the queen, in
order to marry this lady. Lord Clarendon was thought to have
promoted the match with the Duke of Richmond, thereby to prevent the
other design, which he imagined would hurt the king's character,
embroil his affairs at present, and entail all the evils of a
disputed succession on the nation. Whether he actually encouraged
the Duke of Richmond's marriage, doth not appear; but it is certain
that he was so strongly possessed of the king's inclination to a
divorce, that, even after his disgrace, he was persuaded the Duke of
Buckingham had under taken to carry that matter through the
parliament. It is certain too that the king considered him as the
chief promoter of Miss Stewart's marriage, and resented it in the
highest degree. (See Pepys' Diaries. Ed.) The ceremony took place
privately, and it was publicly declared in April, 1667. From one of
Sir Robert Southwell's dispatches, dated Lisbon, December ?/12,
1667, it appears that the report of the queen's intended divorce had
not then subsided in her native country.--History of the Revolutions
of Portugal, 1740, p. 352. The du