Then it was that Miss Stewart was greatly pleased with herself for the resistance she had made, though she had paid dearly for it:  a thousand flattering hopes of greatness and glory filled her heart, and the additional respect that was universally paid her, contributed not a little to increase them.  The queen was given over by her physicians:  the few Portuguese women that had not been sent back to their own country filled the court with doleful cries; and the good nature of the king was much affected with the situation in which he saw a princess, whom, though he did not love her, yet he greatly esteemed.  She loved him tenderly, and thinking that it was the last time she should ever speak to him, she told him, that the concern he showed for her death, was enough to make her quit life with regret; but that not possessing charms sufficient to merit his tenderness, she had at least the consolation in dying to give place to a consort who might be more worthy of it, and to whom heaven, perhaps, might grant a blessing that had been refused to her.  At these words, she bathed his hands with some tears, which he thought would be her last:  he mingled his own with hers; and without supposing she would take him at his word, he conjured her to live for his sake.  She had never yet disobeyed him; and, however dangerous sudden impulses may be, when one is between life and death, this transport of joy, which might have proved fatal to her, saved her life, and the king’s wonderful tenderness had an effect, for which every person did not thank heaven in the same manner.

Jermyn had now for some time been recovered of his wounds:  however, Lady Castlemaine, finding his health in as deplorable a condition as ever, resolved to regain the king’s heart, but in vain:  for notwithstanding the softness of her tears, and the violence of her passions, Miss Stewart wholly possessed it.  During this period the court was variously entertained:  sometimes there were promenades, and at others the court beauties sallied out on horseback, and to make attacks with their charms and graces, sometimes successfully, sometimes otherwise, but always to the best of their abilities at other seasons there were such shows on the river, as the city of London alone can afford.

The Thames washes the sides of a large though not a magnificent palace of the kings of Great Britain:—­[This was Whitehall, which was burnt down, except the banqueting-house, 4th January, 1698.]—­from the stairs of this palace the court used to take water, in the summer evenings, when the heat and dust prevented their walking in the park:  an infinite number of open boats, filled with the court and city beauties, attended the barges, in which were the Royal Family:  collations, music, and fireworks, completed the scene.  The Chevalier de Grammont always made one of the company, and it was very seldom that he did not add something of his own invention, agreeably to surprise by some unexpected stroke of magnificence and gallantry.  Sometimes he had complete concerts of vocal and instrumental music, which he privately brought from Paris, and which struck up on a sudden in the midst of these parties; sometimes he gave banquets, which likewise came from France, and which, even in the midst of London, surpassed the king’s collations.  These entertainments sometimes exceeded, as others fell short of his expectations, but they always cost him an immense deal of money.