that, when her mother talked of taking her away to England, he begged
that she would not remove so fair an ornament from his Court, and vowed
that he would provide the child with a splendid dower and a noble
husband if she would but allow her to remain.

But Madame Stuart had other designs for her pretty daughter; and when
Henrietta Maria took boat to England to shine again at the Court of
Whitehall, under her son's reign, Frances Stuart joined her retinue, and
found herself transported from the schoolroom to the most brilliant and
dangerous court in Europe. When this transformation came in her life
Walter Stuart's daughter was just blossoming into as sweet and fragrant
a flower as ever bloomed in woman's guise. Fair and graceful as a lily,
with luxuriant brown hair, eyes of violet, and a proud, dainty little
head, she had a figure which, although yet not fully formed, was
faultless in its modelling and its exquisite grace. And these physical
charms were allied to an unspoiled freshness, which combined the artless
fascinations of the child with the allurements of the woman.

Such was Frances Stuart when she made her appearance at the Court of
Charles II. as maid-of-honour, to his Queen, Catherine; and one can
scarcely wonder that, even among the most beautiful women in England,
the French "Mademoiselle," as she was called, was hailed as a new
revelation of female fascination, especially as she brought with her the
bubbling gaiety and passionate zest of life of the land of her exile.

To the "Merrie Monarch's" senses, sated with riper beauties and more
stolid charms, this unspoiled child of nature was as a wild rose
compared with exotic hot-house flowers. She was, he vowed, so "dainty,
so fresh, so fragrant," that none but the sourest of anchorites could
resist her--and he was no anchorite, as the world knew well. Almost at