Court life under the merry monarch.--Riding in Hyde Park.
--Sailing on the Thames.--Ball at Whitehall.--Petit soupers.
--What happened at Lady Gerrard's.--Lady Castlemaine quarrels
with the king.--Flight to Richmond.--The queen falls ill.--The
king's grief and remorse.--Her majesty speaks.--Her secret sorrow
finds voice in delirium.--Frances Stuart has hopes.--The queen
recovers.

Views of court life during the first years of the merry monarch's
reign, obtainable from works of his contemporaries, present a
series of brilliant, changeful, and interesting pictures. Scarce
a day passed that their majesties, attended by a goodly throng of
courtiers, went not abroad, to the vast delight of the town: and
rarely a night sped by unmarked by some magnificent
entertainment, to the great satisfaction of the court. At noon
it was a custom of the king and queen, surrounded by maids of
honour and gentlemen in waiting, the whole forming a gladsome and
gallant crowd, to ride in coaches or on horseback in Hyde Park:
which place has been described as "a field near the town, used by
the king and nobility for the freshness of the air, and goodly
prospect."

Here in a railed-off circle, known as the ring, and situated in
the northern half of the park, the whole world of fashion and
beauty diverted itself. Noble gallants wearing broad-brimmed
hats and waving plumes, doublets of velvet, and ruffles of rich
lace; and fair women with flowing locks and dainty patches,
attired in satin gowns, and cloaks wrought with embroidery, drove
round and round, exchanging salutations and smiles as they