This information, no doubt, was in Louis’ mind when, later, it became necessary to cement Charles’s allegiance to his compact.  Gold was always a potent lure to the “Merrie Monarch,” whose purse was never deep enough for the demands made on it by his extravagance; but a still more seductive bait was a beautiful woman to add to his seraglio.  The Duchess of Cleveland had now lost her youth and good looks; the incomparable Stuart’s beauty had been fatally marred by small-pox.  Of all the fair and frail women who had held Charles in thrall there was none left to dispute the palm with the French maid-of-honour except Nell Gwynn, the Drury Lane orange-girl, whose sauciness and vulgarity gave to the jaded Sybarite a piquant relish to her charms.

Here was a splendid opportunity for Louis to complete the conquest of his vacillating cousin whose allegiance was so vital to his plans of aggrandisement.  Louise should go to Whitehall to play the part of beautiful spy on Charles, and, by her favours, to make him a pliant tool in the hand of “le Roi Soleil.”

Charles, who was by no means loth to renew his Dover acquaintance with the bewitching maid-of-honour, sent a yacht to Dieppe to bring her to England, and charged no less a personage than the Duke of Buckingham to be her escort to Whitehall.  The Duke, however, who was probably too much occupied with his own affairs of the heart, “totally forgot both the lady and his promise; and, leaving the disconsolate nymph at Dieppe, to manage as best she could, passed over to England by way of Calais,”—­a slight which the indignant Louise never forgave.

Thus it was that the new favourite of the King made her journey across the Channel under the escort of the English Ambassador, and was given by him into the charge of Buckingham’s political rival, Lord Arlington.  “The Duke of Buckingham thus,” to quote Bishop Burnet, “lost all merit he might have pretended to, and brought over a mistress whom his strange conduct threw into the hands of his enemies.”

The arrival of the “French spy,” whose mission was well understood, was hailed by the English nation with execration, modified only by a few stilted lines of greeting from Dryden, as laureate, and some indecent verses by St Evremond—­efforts which the new beauty equally rewarded with gracious smiles and thanks.  That the English frankly hated her without having even seen her was a matter of small concern—­she was prepared for it.  All she cared for was that Charles should give her a cordial welcome; and this he did with effusiveness and open arms.  Apart from her character as ambassadress to his “dear brother” of France, she was a new and piquant stimulus to his sated appetite—­a “dainty dish to set before a King.”

She was installed at Whitehall to the flourish of trumpets; was appointed maid-of-honour to the Queen, who frankly disliked and dreaded this new rival in her husband’s accommodating affection; and at once assumed her position as chief of those women the King delighted to honour.  And with such restraint and discretion did she conduct herself during these early days at Whitehall that she disarmed the jealousy of the Court ladies, while receiving the homage of their gallants.