misfortunes."

'Twould have been a dangerous speech perhaps had a man of the Court of
Henry the Eighth made it, even to a friend, but Charles was too lightly
vicious and too fond of gay scenes to be savage. His brutality was such
as was carelessly wreaked on hearts instead of heads--hearts he
polluted, made toys of, flung in the mire or broke; heads he left on
the shoulders they belonged to. But he did not love his Grace of
Osmonde, and though his rank and character were such that he could not
well treat him with indignity, he did not regret that after his Grace's
marriage with the Lady Rosalys Delile he appeared but seldom at Court.

"He is a tiresome fellow, for one can find no fault with him," his
Majesty said, fretfully. "Odd's fish! fortune is on his side where my
house is concerned. His father fought at Edgehill and Marston Moor, and
they tell me died but two years after Naseby of a wound he had there.
Let him go and bury himself on his great estates, play the benefactor
to his tenantry, listen to his Chaplain's homilies, and pay stately
visits to the manors of his neighbours."

His Grace lived much in the country, not being fond of town, but he did
not bury himself and his fair spouse. Few men lived more active lives
and found such joy in existence. He entertained at his country seats
most brilliantly, since, though he went but seldom to London, he was
able to offer London such pleasures and allurements that it was glad to
come to him. There were those who were delighted to leave the Court
itself to visit Roxholm or Camylott or some other of his domains. Men
who loved hunting and out-of-door life found entertainment on the
estates of a man who was the most splendid sportsman of his day, whose
moors and forests provided the finest game and his stables the finest
horses in England. Women who were beauties found that in his stately
rooms they might gather courts about them. Men of letters knew that in
his libraries they might delve deep into the richest mines. Those who
loved art found treasures in his galleries, and wide comprehension and
finished tastes in their master.

And over the assemblies, banquets, and brilliant hunt balls there
presided the woman with the loveliest eyes, 'twas said, in England,
Scotland, Ireland, or Wales--the violet eyes King Charles had been
stirred by and which had caused him a bitter scene with my Lady
Castlemaine, whose eyes were neither violet nor depths of tender
purity. The sw