there being a little, proud, ugly, talking lady there, that was much crying up the queene-mother’s court at Somerset House, above our queen’s; there being before her no allowance of laughing and mirth that is at the other’s; and, indeed, it is observed that the greatest court now-a-days is there.  Thence to Whitehall, where I carried my wife to see the queene in her presence-chamber; and the maydes of honour and the young Duke of Monmouth, playing at cards.’

Queen Katherine, notwithstanding that the first words she was ever known to say in English were ‘You lie!’ was one of the gentlest of beings.  Pepys describes her as having a modest, innocent look, among all the demireps with whom she was forced to associate.  Again we turn to Pepys, an anecdote of whose is characteristic of poor Katherine’s submissive, uncomplaining nature:—­

’With Creed, to the King’s Head ordinary;... and a pretty gentleman in our company, who confirms my Lady Castlemaine’s being gone from court, but knows not the reason; he told us of one wipe the queene, a little while ago, did give her, when she came in and found the queene under the dresser’s hands, and had been so long.  “I wonder your Majesty,” says she, “can have the patience to sit so long a-dressing?”—­“I have so much reason to use patience,” says the queene, “that I can very well bear with it."’

It was in the court of this injured queen that De Grammont went one evening to Mrs. Middleton’s house:  there was a ball that night, and amongst the dancers was the loveliest creature that De Grammont had ever seen.  His eyes were riveted on this fair form; he had heard, but never till then seen her, whom all the world consented to call ’La Belle Hamilton,’ and his heart instantly echoed the expression.  From this time he forgot Mrs. Middleton, and despised Miss Warmestre:  ‘he found,’ he said, that he ‘had seen nothing at court till this instant.’

‘Miss Hamilton,’ he himself tells us, ’was at the happy age when the charms of the fair sex begin to bloom; she had the finest shape, the loveliest neck, and most beautiful arms in the world; she was majestic and graceful in all her movements; and she was the original after which all the ladies copied in their taste and air of dress.  Her forehead was open, white, and smooth; her hair was well set, and fell with ease into that natural order which it is so difficult to imitate.  Her complexion was possessed of a certain freshness, not to be equalled by borrowed colours; her eyes were not large, but they were lively, and capable of expressing whatever she pleased.’[12] So far for her person; but De Grammont was, it seems, weary of external charms:  it was the intellectual superiority that riveted his feelings, whilst his connoisseurship in beauty was satisfied that he had never yet seen any one so perfect.

[Illustration:  DE GRAMMONT’S MEETING WITH LA BELLE HAMILTON.]