And there were not wanting particular reasons to dispose Charles to favour and forgiveness in this instance.  Though Elliot had concealed the fact at Maufant, he was in fact a married man.  His wife was the daughter of the Mrs. Wyndham who had been the king’s nurse.  To this family connection he owed his first introduction to the royal household, which had been constantly improved by his lawless and pushing nature.  A contemporary remarked of Elliot that “he was not one who would receive any injury from his modesty.”  The late king’s grave and virtuous mind had been greatly alienated by these things, and he had once dismissed him from his family.  The passionate youth had recovered his position owing to the Wyndham influence, but he came back with illwill in his heart.  The memory of the royal martyr inspired him with scant reverence, nor did he feel either respect or compassion for the queen-mother.  From these sentiments, however, one advantage flowed.  Elliot was bitterly opposed to Jermyn and the French interest, and made use of his opportunities about the king’s person to strengthen him in a like opposition.  So it came to pass that, after sulking an hour, the facile master not only pardoned the petulant servant, but promoted him to be a groom of the bedchamber; and the return was made in an increased persistence in efforts on Elliot’s part to amuse the king and flatter all his propensities, whether political or personal.

The “Indian summer,” or ete de S. Martin, was at its height in Jersey, when Carteret, obtaining Charles’s ready acquiescence, resolved on ordering a general review of the militia.  Soon after daybreak on the 30th October the population began streaming in from all parishes, under the mild splendour of a cloudless heaven.  The scene was on the sands of S. Aubin’s Bay, between the Mont Patibulaire and Millbrook.  On the right wing stood two squadrons of mounted infantry, with their standards displayed in the morning breeze.  On the left were the parish batteries, with their guns, caissons, and tumbrils.  In the centre were the Cornish body guard and the militia infantry in battalion six deep, while the reserve and recruits brought up the rear.  All but the last-named carried matches for their firearms, which were loaded with blank cartridge.  The supports carried pikes.  The drums beat, the colours flew, as Charles and his staff, surrounded by an escort of the mounted infantry, emerging from the south gate of the castle, rode along the low-water causeway.

Mme. de Maufant and her sister, mounted on sober but well-bred nags, and accompanied by some of their farm hands in gala costume, occupied a foremost place among the spectators.  But the appearance of the castle cortege threatened their comfort, if not their safety.  For the public excitement grew from moment to moment, “and those behind cried forward! and those before cried back!” The younger and more excitable especially, spurred by the fine weather and the novel spectacle, pressed eagerly to the front, mixed with mothers of scrofulous children, desirous of gaining for them the healing virtue of the royal touch.  The king’s horse, short of work, and participating in the general excitement, reared and curvetted in the crowd, but was reined in by his skillful rider.