Love Romances of the Aristocracy | Page 3

of ankles in England, and surrounded by her
big playfellows, she would challenge them to a competition in
castle-building with cards; and when her carefully-reared edifice
toppled to the ground she would break into a silvery peal of laughter,
and clap her hands for the King to come and help her to rebuild it, for

no less distinguished assistant would she allow to touch her cards. And
Charles never failed to respond to the summons, though he were
hobnobbing with chancellor or archbishop, and would be sent away
happy, with a kiss for his pains. No wonder poor Pepys was horrified at
such unseemly goings-on.
And equally small wonder that the King's mistresses and the great
ladies of the Court cast many a jealous and vindictive glance on the
child, who had power to lure away their slaves to her nursery shrine.
The Duke of Buckingham, himself, was prouder to be her favourite
playfellow than of all his conquests in the field of love. He wrote songs,
and sang them for her pleasure; he kept her in a ripple of laughter for
hours together by his stories and clever mimicry, and rushed to her side
whenever she summoned him to build card-castles or to join in a
romp--until what was "play to the child" began to prove a serious
matter to the man of the world. He found that, while he was building
castles or chasing the elusive fairy blindfolded, she had stolen his heart
away; but when he ventured to tell his love to her she boxed his ears,
and told him to run away and not be so naughty again.
Was there ever so tantalising and inscrutable a maid? And as she had
treated the King and his chief favourite, she treated all her other
playfellows. The Earl of Arlington, a grave, dignified Lord of the
Bedchamber, so far unbended as to make love to the little witch, who
stood so well in the favour of his Sovereign; and never did man exert
himself more to win the favour of a maid.
"Having provided himself," says Hamilton, "with a great number of
maxims and some historical anecdotes, he obtained an audience of
Miss Stuart, in order to display them; at the same time offering her his
most humble services in the situation to which it had pleased God and
her virtue to raise her. But he was only in the preface of his speech,
when he reminded her so ludicrously of Buckingham's mimicry of him
that she burst into a peal of laughter in his very face, and rushed stifling
from the room. Thus ignominiously was sounded the death-knell of
Arlington's hopes!"
George Hamilton, one of the most handsome and fascinating men in

England, fared better, but retired from the pursuit of so seductive and
tantalising a maid. Still Hamilton was the most congenial playfellow of
them all. He was a madcap like herself, always ripe for fun and frolic;
and for a time she revelled in his comradeship. He first won her heart in
the following fashion. One day old Lord Carlingford was delighting
and convulsing her by placing a lighted candle in his mouth, and
hobbling to and fro thus illuminated. "I can do better than that,"
exclaimed the irrepressible Hamilton. "Give me two candles." The
candles were produced. Hamilton lit them, and thrust the pair into his
capacious mouth, and minced three times round the room before they
were extinguished, while La belle Stuart paraded after him, clapping
her hands and laughing in her glee.
Such a feat was an efficient passport to her favour. Rollicking George
was at once installed as playmate-in-chief to the spoiled child, and was
privileged with a greater intimacy than any of her other favourites had
ever enjoyed.
"Since the Court has been in the country," he confessed, "I have had a
hundred opportunities of seeing her. You know that the _déshabille_ of
the bath is a great convenience for those ladies who, strictly adhering to
their rules of decorum, are yet desirous to display all their charms and
attractions. Miss Stuart is so fully acquainted with the advantages she
possesses over all other women, that it is hardly possible to praise any
lady at Court for a well-turned arm and a fine leg, but she is ever ready
to dispute the point by demonstration. After all, a man must be very
insensible to remain unconcerned and unmoved on such happy
occasions."
It is conceivable that Hamilton, stimulated by such, no doubt, artless
encouragement as he seems to have enjoyed, might have made a
conquest where so many had failed, had not his future brother-in-law,
Gramont, taken him seriously to task and warned him of the grave
danger of flirting with the lady on whom the King had set eyes of love,