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others, and gives a little subsistence, but no more, to his bastards. He told me the whole story of Mrs. Stewart's going away from Court, he knowing her well; and believes her, up to her leaving the Court, to be as virtuous as any woman in the world: and told me, from a Lord that she told it to but yesterday, with her own mouth, and a sober man, that when the Duke of Richmond did make love to her, she did ask the King, and he did the like also; and that the King did not deny it, and [she] told this Lord that she was come to that pass as to have resolved to have married any gentleman of 1,500/. a year that would have had her in honour; for it was come to that pass, that she could not longer continue at Court without prostituting herself to the King,1 whom she had so long kept off, though he had liberty more than any other had, or he ought to have, as to dalliance. She told this Lord that she had reflected upon the occasion she had given the world to think her a bad woman, and that she had no way but to marry and leave the Court, rather in this way of discontent than otherwise, that the world might see that she sought not any thing but her honour; and that she will never come to live at Court more than when she comes to town to kiss the Queene her Mistress's hand: and hopes, though she hath little reason to hope, she can please her Lord so as to re

Baronies were created in favour of La Vallière and her daughter, who, in the deed of creation, was legitimatized, and styled Princess.

1 Even at a much later time, Mrs. Godolphin well resolved “not to talk foolishly to men, more especially THE KING,”—“be sure never to talk to THE KING."-Life by Evelyn. These expressions speak volumes as to Charles's character.

Evelyn evidently believed the Duchess of Richmond to be innocent; and his testimony, coupled with her own declaration, ought to weigh down all the scandal which Pepys reports from other sources.

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claim him, that they may yet live comfortably in the country on his estate. She told this Lord that all the jewells she ever had given her at Court, or any other presents, more than the King's allowance of 700l. per annum out of the Privy-purse for her clothes, were, at her first coming the King did give her a necklace of pearl of about 1,100/.1 and afterwards, about seven months since, when the King had hopes to have obtained some courtesy of her, the King did give her some jewells, I have forgot what, and I think a pair of pendants. The Duke of York, being once her Valentine, did give her a jewell of about 8ool.; and my Lord Mandeville, her Valentine this year, a ring of about 300/.; and the King of France would have had her mother, who, he says, is one of the most cunning women in the world, to have let her stay in France, saying that he loved her not as a mistress, but as one that he could marry as well as any lady in France; and that, if she might stay, for the honour of his Court he would take care she should not repent. But her mother, by command of the Queen-mother, thought rather to bring her into England; and the King of France did give her a jewell: so that Mr. Evelyn believes she may be worth in jewells about 6,000l., and that that is all she hath in the world: and a worthy woman; and in this hath done as great an act of honour as ever was done by woman. That now the Countess Castlemaine do carry all before her and among other arguments to prove Mrs. Stewart to have been honest to the last, he says that the King's keeping in

1 Which she returned to the King.

2 This lady's name nowhere appears. She was the wife of the Hon. Walter Stuart, M.D., third son of Walter, first Lord Blantyre. The Duchess of Richmond, Frances Teresa, was her elder daughter. The younger, Sophia, married the Hon. Henry Bulkeley, master of the household to Charles II. and James II.

still with my Lady Castlemaine do show it; for he never was known to keep two mistresses in his life, and would never have kept to her had he prevailed any thing with Mrs. Stewart. She is gone yesterday with her Lord to Cobham.' He did tell me of the ridiculous humour of our King and Knights of the Garter the other day, who, whereas heretofore their robes were only to be worn during their ceremonies and service, these, as proud of their coats, did wear them all day till night, and then rode into the Parke with them on. Nay, and he tells me he did see my Lord Oxford and the Duke of Monmouth in a hackney-coach with two footmen in the Parke, with their robes on; which is a most scandalous thing, so as all gravity may be said to be lost among us. By and by we discoursed of Sir Thomas Clifford, whom I took for a very rich and learned man, and of the great family of that name. He tells me he is only a man of about seven-score pounds a-year, of little learning more than the law of a justice of peace, which he knows well: a parson's son, got to be burgess in a little borough in the West, and here fell

1 Cobham Hall, in Kent, after the attainder of Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, was granted by James I. to Ludovic Stuart, Duke of Lennox, and his brother George, Lord Aubigney, from whom it descended to Charles Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, in 1660. This Duke dying, s. p., in 1672, when ambassador to Denmark, the estates, together with the English barony of Clifton, passed, through his sister, Lady Catherine O'Brien, to the ancestor of the Earl of Darnley, the present possessor. Lady Catherine O'Brien married Sir Joseph Williamson, who repurchased the Cobham estates, when sold, and preserved them to the family.

2 Sir Thomas Clifford was the eldest son of Hugh Clifford, of Ugbrook, in Devonshire, who had been entrusted with the command of a regiment of foot for the King, in the beginning of the Rebellion. Sir Thomas attended the Duke of York in the great sea-fight with the Dutch, 3rd June, 1665. On the 20th April, 1672, he was created Baron Clifford, of Chudleigh, co. Devon; and on 28th November following, appointed Lord High Treasurer. Ob. 1673.-LODGE's Portraits.

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