being seduced by too
good an opinion of his own merit, he forgot his first project and his
Portuguese mistress, in order to pursue a fancy in which he mistook
himself; for he no sooner began to act a serious part with Miss Stewart,
than he met with so severe a repulse that he abandoned, at once, all his
designs upon her: however, the familiarity she had procured him with the
king, opened the way to those favours to which he was afterwards
advanced.

[George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham, was born 30th
January, 1627. Lord Orford observes, "When this extraordinary man,
with the figure and genius of Alcibiades, could equally charm the
presbyterian Fairfax and the dissolute Charles; when he alike
ridiculed that witty king and his solemn chancellor: when he plotted
the ruin of his country with a cabal of bad ministers, or, equally
unprincipled, supported its cause with bad patriots,--one laments
that such parts should have been devoid of every virtue: but when
Alcibiades turns chemist; when he is a real bubble and a visionary
miser; when ambition is but a frolic; when the worst designs are for
the foolishest ends,--contempt extinguishes all reflection on his
character."]

Lord Arlington took up the project which the Duke of Buckingham had
abandoned, and endeavoured to gain possession of the mind of the
mistress, in order to govern the master. A man of greater merit and
higher birth than himself might, however, have been satisfied with the
fortune he had already acquired. His first negotiations were during the
treaty of the Pyrenees: and though he was unsuccessful in his proceedings
for his employer, yet he did not altogether lose his time; for he
perfectly acquired, in his exterior, the serious air and profound gravity
of the Spaniards, and imitated pretty well their tardiness in business:
he had a scar across his nose, which was covered by a long patch, or
rather by a small plaister, in form of a lozenge.

Scars in the face commonly give a man a certain fierce and martial air,
which sets him off to advantage; but it was quite the contrary with him,
and this remarkable plaister so well suited his mysterious looks, that it
seemed an addition to his gravity and self-sufficiency.

Arlington, under the mask of this compound countenance where great
earnestness passed for business, and impenetrable stupidity for secrecy,
had given himself the character of a great politician; and no