d her, as if she had been the chaste Lucretia, or
the beauteous Helen: his passion even increased after marriage, and the
generous fair, first out of gratitude, and afterwards through
inclination, never brought him a child of which he was not the father;
and though there have been many a happy couple in England, this certainly
was the happiest.

Some time after, Miss Bellenden, not being terrified by this example,
had the prudence to quit the court before she was obliged so to do: the
disagreeable Bardou followed her soon after; but for different reasons.
Every person was at last completely tired of her saraband, as well as of
her face; and the king, that he might see neither of them any more, gave
each a small pension for her subsistence. There now only remained little
Mademoiselle de la Garde to be provided for neither her virtues nor her
vices were sufficiently conspicuous to occasion her being either
dismissed from court, or pressed to remain there: God knows what would
have become of her, if a Mr. Silvius, a man who had nothing of a Roman in
him except the name, had not taken the poor girl to be his wife. We have
now shown how all these damsels deserved to be expelled, either for their
irregularities, or for their ugliness; and yet, those who replaced them
found means to make them regretted, Miss Wells only excepted.

She was a tall girl, exquisitely shaped: she dressed very genteel, walked
like a goddess; and yet, her face, though made like those that generally
please the most, was unfortunately one of those that pleased the least:
nature had spread over it a certain careless indolence that made her look
sheepish. This gave but a bad opinion of her wit: and her wit had the
ill-luck to make good that opinion: however, as she was fresh coloured,
and appeared inexperienced, the king, whom the fair Stewart did not
render over nice as to the perfections of the mind, resolved to try
whether the senses would not fare better with Miss Wells's person than
fine sentiments with her understanding: nor was this experiment attended
with much difficulty: she was of a loyal family; and her father having
faithfully served Charles the First, she thought it her duty not to
revolt against Charles the Second. But this connection was not attended
with very advantageous circumstances for herself; some pretended that she
did not hold out long enough, and that she surrendered at discretion
before she was vigorously attacked; and others sa