he gallant'st person, and the noblest minde,
In all the world his prince could ever finde,
Or to participate his private cares,
Or bear the public weight of his affairs,
Like well-built arches, stronger with their weight,
And well-built minds, the steadier with their height;
Such was the composition and frame
O' the noble and the gallant Buckingham.'

The praise, however, even in the duke's best days, was overcharged.
Villiers was no 'well-built arch,' nor could Charles trust to the
fidelity of one so versatile for an hour. Besides, the moral character
of Villiers must have prevented him, even in those days, from bearing
'the public weight of affairs.'

A scandalous intrigue soon proved the unsoundness of Flecknoe's tribute.
Amongst the most licentious beauties of the court was Anna Maria,
Countess of Shrewsbury, the daughter of Robert Brudenel, Earl of
Cardigan, and the wife of Francis, Earl of Shrewsbury: amongst many
shameless women she was the most shameless, and her face seems to have
well expressed her mind. In the round, fair visage, with its languishing
eyes, and full, pouting mouth, there is something voluptuous and bold.
The forehead is broad, but low; and the wavy hair, with its tendril
curls, comes down almost to the fine arched eyebrows, and then, falling
into masses, sets off white shoulders which seem to designate an
inelegant amount of _embonpoint_. There is nothing elevated in the whole
countenance, as Lely has painted her, and her history is a disgrace to
her age and time.

She had numerous lovers (not in the refined sense of the word), and, at
last, took up with Thomas Killigrew. He had been, like Villiers, a
royalist: first a page to Charles I., next a companion of Charles II.,
in exile. He married the fair Cecilia Croft; yet his morals were so
vicious that even in the Court of Venice to which he was accredited, in
order to borrow money from the merchants of that city, he was too
profligate to remain. He came back with Charles II., and was Master of
the Revels, or King's Jester, as the court considered him, though
without any regular appointment, during his life: the butt, at once, and
the satirist of Whitehall.

It was Killigrew's wit and descriptive powers which, when heightened by
wine, were inconceivably great, that induced Villiers to select Lady
Shrewsbury for the object of his admiration. When Killigrew perceived
that he was supplanted by Villiers, he became f