to see her, and from that circumstance arose the marquis’s affection to this lady.  From Paris they went to Rotterdam, where they resided six months:  from thence they returned to Antwerp, where they settled, and continued during the time of their exile, as it was the most quiet place, and where they could in the greatest peace enjoy their ruined fortune.  She proved a most agreeable companion to the marquis, during the gloomy period of exile, and enlivened their recess, both by her writing and conversation, as appears by the many compliments and addresses he made her on that occasion.

The lady undertook a voyage into England, in order to obtain some of the marquis’s rents, to supply their pressing necessities, and pay the debts they had been there obliged to contract; and accordingly went with her brother to Goldsmith’s Hall, where, it seems, the committee of sequestration sat, but could not obtain the smallest sum out of the marquis’s vast inheritance, which, amounted to 20,000 l. per annum; and had it not been for the generosity and tenderness of Sir Charles Cavendish (who greatly reduced his own fortune, to support his brother in distress) they must have been exposed to extreme poverty.

Having raised a considerable sum, by the generosity of her own, and the marquis’s, relations, she returned to Antwerp, where she continued with her lord, till the restoration of Charles ii, upon which, the marquis, after six years banishment, made immediate preparation for his return to his native country, leaving his lady behind him to dispatch his affairs there, who, having conducted them to his lordship’s satisfaction, she soon followed her consort into England.  Being now restored to the sunshine of prosperity, she dedicated her time to writing poems, philosophical discourses, orations and plays.  She was of a generous turn of mind, and kept a great many young ladies about her person, who occasionally wrote what she dictated.  Some of them slept in a room, contiguous to that in which her Grace lay, and were ready, at the call of her bell, to rise any hour of the night, to write down her conceptions, lest they should escape her memory.

The young ladies, no doubt, often dreaded her Grace’s conceptions, which were frequent, but all of the poetical or philosophical kind, for though she was very beautiful, she died without issue:  she is said to have been very reserved and peevish, perhaps owing to the circumstance just mentioned, of having never been honoured with the name of mother.

Mr. Jacob says, that she was the most voluminous writer of all the female poets; that she had a great deal of wit, and a more than ordinary propensity to dramatic poetry; and Mr. Langbaine tells us, that all the language and plots of her plays were her own, which, says he, is a commendation preferable to fame built on other people’s foundation, and will very well atone for some faults in her numerous productions.  As the Duchess is said to be negligent, in regard to