On his birthday, the 29th of May, 1660, Charles II returned to Whitehall.  The vast labyrinthine chambers of the palace were soon filled to overflowing by his crowded court.  The queen’s rooms were facing the river to the east of the Water Gate.  Prince Rupert had rooms in the Stone Gallery, which ran along the south side of Privy Gardens, beyond the main buildings of the palace, and beneath him were the apartments of the king’s mistresses, Barbara Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine, afterward Duchess of Cleveland, and Louise de Querouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth.  The rooms of the latter, who first came to England with Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, to entice Charles II into an alliance with Louis XIV., and whose “childish, simple, baby-face” is described by Evelyn, were three times rebuilt to please her, having “ten times the richness and glory” of the queen’s.  Nell Gwynne did not live in the palace, tho she was one of Queen Catherine’s Maids of Honor!

Charles died in Whitehall on February 6, 1684.  With his successor the character of the palace changed.  James II, who continued to make it his principal residence, established a Roman Catholic chapel there.

It was from Whitehall that Queen Mary Beatrice made her escape on the night of December 9, 1688.  The adventure was confided to the Count de Lauzun and his friend M. de St. Victor, a gentleman of Avignon.  The queen on that terrible evening entreated vainly to be allowed to remain and share the perils of her husband; he assured her that it was absolutely necessary that she should precede him, and that he would follow her in twenty-four hours.  The king and queen went to bed as usual to avoid suspicion, but rose soon after, when the queen put on a disguise provided by St. Victor.  The royal pair then descended to the rooms of Madame de Labadie, where they found Lauzun, with the infant Prince James and his two nurses.  The king, turning-to Lauzun, said, “I confide my queen and my son to your care:  all must be hazarded to convey them with the utmost speed to France.”  Lauzun then gave his hand to the queen to lead her away, and, followed by the two nurses with the child, they crossed the Great Gallery, and descended by a back staircase and a postern gate to Privy Gardens.  At the garden gate a coach was waiting, the queen entered with Lauzun, the nurses, and her child, who slept the whole time, St. Victor mounted by the coachman, and they drove to the “Horse Ferry” at Westminster, where a boat was waiting in which they crossed to Lambeth.

On the 11th the Dutch troops had entered London, and James, having commanded the gallant Lord Craven, who was prepared to defend the palace to the utmost, to draw off the guard which he commanded, escaped himself in a boat from the water-entrance of the palace at three o’clock in the morning.  At Feversham his flight was arrested, and he returned amid bonfires, bell-ringing, and every symptom of joy from the fickle populace.  Once more he slept in Whitehall, but