te in the peerage,
court calendar, and army list. The elegance and superior arrangement of
this Cytherean _fete_ was in the most exquisite taste; and such was the
number of applications for admissions, and the reported splendour of the
preparations, that great influence in a certain court was necessary to
insure a safe passport into the territories of the Paphian goddess. The
enormous expense of this act of folly has been estimated at upwards
of two thousand pounds; and many are the dupes who have been named as
bearing proportions of the same, from a royal duke to a Hebrew star of
some magnitude in the city; but truth will out, and the ingenuity of
her ladyship in raising the wind has never been disputed, if it has
ever been equalled, by any of her fair associates. The honour of the
arrangement and a good portion of the expense were, undoubtedly, borne
by a broad-shouldered Milesian commissary-general, who has since figured
among the ton under the quaint cognomen of General Trinket, from his
penchant for filling his pockets with a variety of cheap baubles, for
the purpose of making presents to his numerous Dulcineas; a trifling
extravagance, which joined to his attachment to _rouge et noir_ has
since consigned him to durance vile. The general is, however, certainly
a fellow of some address, and, as a master of the ceremonies, deserves
due credit for the superior genius he on that occasion displayed.

During dinner, Crony had been telling us a curious anecdote of the
great Earl of Chesterfield and Miss Debouchette, the grandmother of
the celebrated courtezans, Harriette Wilson and sisters. "At one of the
places of public entertainment at the Hague, a very beautiful girl of
the name of Debouchette, who ~37~~acted as _limonadiere_, had attracted
the notice of a party of English noblemen, who were all equally anxious
to obtain so fair a prize. Intreaties, promises of large settlements,
and every species of lure that the intriguers could invent, had
been attempted and played off without the slightest success; the fair
_limonadiere_ was proof against all their arts. In this state of
affairs arrived the then elegant and accomplished Earl of Chesterfield,
certainly one of the most attractive and finished men of his time, but,
without doubt, equally dissipated, and notorious for the number of his
amours. Whenever a charming girl in the humbler walks of life becomes
the star of noble attraction and the reigning toast among the _ro