will make by it:  I have not forgotten what the king said to me upon the subject.  ’Believe me, my dear friend, there is no playing tricks with our masters; I mean, there is no ogling their mistresses.’  I myself wanted to play the agreeable in France with a little coquette, whom the king did not care about, and you know how dearly I paid for it.  I confess she gives you fair play, but do not trust to her.  All the sex feel an unspeakable satisfaction at having men in their train, whom they care not for, and to use them as their slaves of state, merely to swell their equipage.  Would it not be a great deal better to pass a week or ten days incognito at Peckham, with the philosopher Wetenhall’s wife, than to have it inserted in the Dutch Gazette.—­We hear from Bristol, that such a one is banished the court on account of Miss Stewart, and that he is going to make a campaign in Guinea on board the fleet that is fitting out for the expedition, under the command of Prince Rupert.”

Hamilton, who was the more convinced of the truth of this discourse, the more he considered it, after musing some time, appeared to wake from a dream, and addressing himself with an air of gratitude to the Chevalier de Grammont:  “Of all the men in the world, my dear friend,” said he, “you have the most agreeable wit, and at the same time the clearest judgment with respect to your friends:  what you have told me has opened my eyes.  I began to suffer myself to be seduced by the most ridiculous illusion imaginable, and to be hurried away rather by frivolous appearances than any real inclination:  to you I owe the obligation of having preserved me from destruction at the very brink of a precipice.  This is not the only kindness you have done me, your favours have been innumerable; and, as a proof of my gratitude for this last, I will follow your advice, and go into retirement at my cousin Wetenhall’s, to eradicate from my recollection every trace of those chimeras which lately possessed my brain; but so far from going thither incognito, I will take you along with me, as soon as the court returns to London.  My sister shall likewise be of the party; for it is prudent to use all precautions with a man who, with a great deal of merit, on such occasions is not over scrupulous, if we may credit your philosopher.”  “Do not pay any attention to that pedant,” replied the Chevalier de Grammont:  “but tell me what put it into your head to form a design upon that inanimate statue, Miss Stewart?” “How the devil should I know?” said Hamilton:  “you are acquainted with all her childish amusements.  The old Lord Carlingford was at her apartment one evening, showing her how to hold a lighted wax candle in her mouth, and the grand secret consisted in keeping the burning end there a long time without its being extinguished.  I have, thank God, a pretty large mouth, and, in order to out-do her teacher, I took two candles into my mouth at the same time, and walked three times round the room without their going out.