Was there ever so tantalising and inscrutable a maid? And as she had
treated the King and his chief favourite, she treated all her other
playfellows. The Earl of Arlington, a grave, dignified Lord of the
Bedchamber, so far unbended as to make love to the little witch, who
stood so well in the favour of his Sovereign; and never did man exert
himself more to win the favour of a maid.

"Having provided himself," says Hamilton, "with a great
number of maxims and some historical anecdotes, he
obtained an audience of Miss Stuart, in order to display
them; at the same time offering her his most humble
services in the situation to which it had pleased God and
her virtue to raise her. But he was only in the preface
of his speech, when he reminded her so ludicrously of
Buckingham's mimicry of him that she burst into a peal of
laughter in his very face, and rushed stifling from the
room. Thus ignominiously was sounded the death-knell of
Arlington's hopes!"

George Hamilton, one of the most handsome and fascinating men in
England, fared better, but retired from the pursuit of so seductive and
tantalising a maid. Still Hamilton was the most congenial playfellow of
them all. He was a madcap like herself, always ripe for fun and frolic;
and for a time she revelled in his comradeship. He first won her heart
in the following fashion. One day old Lord Carlingford was delighting
and convulsing her by placing a lighted candle in his mouth, and
hobbling to and fro thus illuminated. "I can do better than that,"
exclaimed the irrepressible Hamilton. "Give me two candles." The candles
were produced. Hamilton lit them, and thrust the pair into his capacious