The King of England (William III.) lost the Duke of Gloucester, heir-presumptive to the crown.  He was eleven years of age, and was the only son of the Princess of Denmark, sister of the defunct Queen Mary, wife of William.  His preceptor was Doctor Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, who was in the secret of the invasion, and who passed into England with the Prince of Orange at the Revolution, of which Revolution he has left a very fraudulent history, and many other works of as little truth and good faith.  The underpreceptor was the famous Vassor, author of the “History of Louis XIII.,” which would be read with more pleasure if there were less spite against the Catholic religion, and less passion against the King.  With those exceptions it is excellent and true.  Vassor must have been singularly well informed of the anecdotes that he relates, and which escape almost all historians.  I have found there, for instance, the Day of the Dupes related precisely as my father has related it to me, and several other curious things not less exact.  This author has made such a stir that it is worth while to say something about him.  He was a priest of the Oratory, and in much estimation as a man whose manners were without reproach.  After a time, however, he was found to have disclosed a secret that had been entrusted to him, and to have acted the spy on behalf of the Jesuits.  The proofs of his treason were found upon his table, and were so conclusive that there was nothing for him but to leave the Oratory.  He did so, and being deserted by his Jesuit employers, threw himself into La Trappe.  But he did not enter the place in a proper spirit, and in a few days withdrew.  After this he went to the Abbey of Perseigne, hired a lodging there, and remained several months.  But he was continually at loggerheads with the monks.  Their garden was separate from his only by a thick hedge; their fowls could jump over it.  He laid the blame upon the monks, and one day caught as many of their fowls as he could; cut off their beaks and their spurs with a cleaver, and threw them back again over the hedge.  This was cruelty so marked that I could not refrain from relating it.

Vassor did not long remain in this retreat, but returned to Paris, and still being unable to gain a living, passed into Holland, from rage and hunger became a Protestant, and set himself to work to live by his pen.  His knowledge, talent, and intelligence procured him many friends, and his reputation reached England, into which country he passed, hoping to gain there more fortune than in Holland.  Burnet received him with open arms, and obtained for him the post of under-preceptor to the Duke of Gloucester.  It would have been difficult to have found two instructors so opposed to the Catholics and to France, or so well suited to the King as teachers of his successor.

Among so many things which paved the way for the greatest events, a very strange one happened, which from its singularity merits a short recital.  For many years the Comtesse de Verrue lived at Turin, mistress, publicly, of M. de Savoie.  The Comtesse de Verrue was daughter of the Duc de Luynes, and had been married in Piedmont, when she was only fourteen years of age, to the Comte de Verrue, young, handsome, rich, and honest; whose mother was lady of honour to Madame de Savoie.