All those who were either great on account of their birth or their loyalty had followed him into exile; and all the young persons of the greatest distinction having afterwards joined him, composed a court worthy of a better fate.

Plenty and prosperity, which are thought to tend only to corrupt manners, found nothing to spoil in an indigent and wandering court.  Necessity, on the contrary, which produces a thousand advantages whether we will or no, served them for education; and nothing was to be seen among them but an emulation in glory, politeness, and virtue.

With this little court, in such high esteem for merit, the King of England returned two years prior to the period we mention, to ascend a throne which, to all appearances, he was to fill as worthily as the most glorious of his predecessors.  The magnificence displayed on thus occasion was renewed at his coronation.

The death of the Duke of Gloucester, and of the Princess Royal, which followed soon after, had interrupted the course of this splendour by a tedious mourning, which they quitted at last to prepare for the reception of the Infanta of Portugal.

[The Princess Royal:  Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., born November 4th, 1631, married to the Prince of Orange, 2nd May, 1641, who died 27th October, 1650.  She arrived in England, September 23rd, and died of the smallpox, December 24th, 1660,-according to Bishop Burnet, not much lamented.  “She had lived,” says the author, “in her widowhood for some years with great reputation, kept a decent court, and supported her brothers very liberally; and lived within bounds.  But her mother, who had the art of making herself believe anything she had a mind to, upon a conversation with the queen-mother of France, fancied the King of France might be inclined to marry her.  So she wrote to her to come to Paris.  In order to that, she made an equipage far above what she could support.  So she ran herself into debt, sold all her jewels, and some estates that were in her power as her son’s guardian; and was not only disappointed of that vain expectation, but fell into some misfortunes that lessened the reputation she had formerly lived in.”  History of his Own Times, vol. i., p. 238.  She was mother of William iii.]

["The Infanta, of Portugal landed in May (1662) at Portsmouth.  The king went thither, and was married privately by Lord Aubigny, a secular priest, and almoner to the queen, according to the rites of Rome, in the queen’s chamber; none present but the Portuguese ambassador, three more Portuguese of quality, and two or three Portuguese women.  What made this necessary was, that the Earl of Sandwich did not marry her by proxy, as usual, before she came away.  How this happened, the duke knows not, nor did the chancellor know of this private marriage.  The queen would not be bedded, till pronounced man and wife by Sheldon, bishop of London.”—­Extract 2, from