his friendship, took care to inspire him with none but such as were pernicious.  The astonishing beauty of his outward form caused universal admiration:  those who before were looked upon as handsome were now entirely forgotten at court:  and all the gay and beautiful of the fair sex were at his devotion.  He was particularly beloved by the king; but the universal terror of husbands and lovers.  This, however, did not long continue; for nature not having endowed him with qualifications to secure the possession of the heart, the fair sex soon perceived the defect.

The Duchess of Cleveland was out of humour with the king, because the children she had by his majesty were like so many little puppets, compared to this new Adonis.  She was the more particularly hurt, as she might have boasted of being the queen of love, in comparison with the duke’s mother.

The king, however, laughed at her reproaches, as, for some time, she had certainly no right to make any; and, as this piece of jealousy appeared to be more ill-founded than any she had formerly affected, no person approved of her ridiculous resentment.  Not succeeding in this, she formed another scheme to give the king uneasiness:  Instead of opposing his extreme tenderness for his son, she pretended to adopt him, in her affection, by a thousand commendations and caresses, which she was daily and continually increasing.  As these endearments were public, she imagined they could not be suspected; but she was too well known for her real design to be mistaken.  The king was no longer jealous of her; but, as the Duke of Monmouth was of an age not to be insensible to the attractions of a woman possessing so many charms, he thought it proper to withdraw him from this pretended mother-in-law, to preserve his innocence, or at least his fame, uncontaminated:  it was for this reason, therefore, that the king married him so young.  An heiress of five thousand pounds a-year in Scotland, offered very a-propos:  her person was full of charms, and her mind possessed all those perfections in which the handsome Monmouth was deficient.

[This was Lady Anne Scott, daughter and sole heir of Francis, Earl of Buccleugh, only son and heir of Walter, Lord Scott, created Earl of Buccleugh in 1619.  On their marriage the duke took the surname of Scott, and he and his lady were created Duke and Duchess of Buccleugh, Earl and Countess of Dalkeith, Baron and Baroness of Whitchester and Ashdale in Scotland, by letters patent, dated April 20th, 1673.  Also, two days after he was installed at Windsor, the king and queen, the Duke of York, and most of the court being present.  The next day, being St. George’s day, his majesty solemnized it with a royal feast, and entertained the knights companions in St. George’s hall in the castle of Windsor.  Though there were several children of this marriage, it does not appear to have been a happy one; the duke, without concealment attaching himself to Lady Harriet Wentworth, whom, with his