gradually resumed his former levities. Nor was this the only evil
with which she had now to contend. Some malicious enemy had profited
by her absences to poison the mind of the queen, with jealous
suspicions of her favourite, and to inspire her with belief, that
Miss Marchmont's propriety of demeanour in public, had only been a
successful mask of private indiscretion; and that Charles had not
been an unsuccessful lover.

"Unwilling to confide to me the difficulties by which she was
assailed, unable alone to steer among the rocks that impeded her
course, Theresa at length adopted the bold measure of confiding her
whole tale to her royal mistress; whose knowledge of the king's
infidelities was already too accurate to admit of an increase of
affliction from this new proof; and on receiving a letter from the
avowed friend of her husband--the grateful patron of her dead father--
the august Father of his people, containing the most insolent
declarations of passion, she vindicated her innocence by placing it
in the hands of the Queen; at the same time entreating permission
that her further services might be dispersed with. Her Majesty's
reply, equally gratifying and affectionate, you have already seen;
and it was in savage and unmanly revenge towards Theresa, for the
frankness and decision of her conduct, that the king had directed
his favorite to enclose me that letter whose sudden perusal had
wrought the destruction of my unhappy wife. You will easily conceive
that the terms of my answer to the Duke of Buckingham were those of
unmeasured indignation--yet he, the parasite, the ready instrument
of royal vice, and the malignant associate of Charles in his last
act of premeditated cruelty, suffered the accusations of the injured
husband to pass unnoticed and unrepelled; and I am persuaded that
nothing but the dread of exposure prevented me from feeling the full