2'«i S. X. Sept, & '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



193 



This unfortunate affair took place in Jan. 1 8 16, and 

 sliows the extreme folly of attempting to frighten 

 with the shade of a supernatural appearance the 

 bravest of men. Before the burning of the ar- 

 mouries there was a paved yard in front of the 

 Jewel House, from which a gloomy and ghost- 

 like doorway led down a flight of steps to the 

 Mint. Some strange noises were heai'd in this 

 gloomy corner ; and on a dark night at twelve the 

 sentry saw a figure like a bear cross the pavement, 

 and disappear down the steps. This so terrified 

 him that he fell, and in a few hours, after having 

 recovered sufficiently to tell the tale, he died. 

 It was fully believed to have arisen from phan- 

 tasmagoria, and the governor, with the colonel of 

 the regiment, doubled the sentry, and used such 

 energetic precautions that no more ghosts haunted 

 the Tower from that time. The soldier bore a 

 high character for bravery and good conduct. I 

 was then in my thirtieth year, and was present 

 when his body was burled with military honours 

 in the Flemish burial ground, St. Catherine's. 



Geobge OrroB. 



CHARLES II. 

 (2"^ S. X. 78.) 



Whether so large a sum as 100,000^. was really 

 offered to the Duchess of Portsmouth for her as- 

 sistance in obtaining from the feeble Charles II. 

 his consent to the disinheriting of his brother, is 

 perhaps doubtful ; but that a smaller, though still 

 considerable, ainount was proffered is probable, 

 the party anxious for the exclusion of the next 

 heir, as their subsequent conduct proved, not 

 being over scrupulous as to the means they em- 

 ployed to attain their object ; and the Duchess, in 

 spite of the vast sums lavished upon her, was 

 never prudent. On the contrary, like most per- 

 sons of lier class, she must have been improvident, 

 as notwithstanding the great amount she must 

 have received from her royal lover, she appears on 

 her return to France to have been greatly reduced 

 in circumstances. 



It is curious to observe in what a business-like 

 way Louis XIV. treated her mission to England. 

 Previously to her departure for the purpose of 

 becoming the mistress of the English sovereign 

 and the spy of France, Louis settled the estate 

 of Aubigny-sur-Niere upon her, and had more- 

 over minutely arranged the manner in which the 

 same should descend upon the children she might 

 have by Charles II. 



The estate was situated in Berry, now the De- 

 partement du Cher, and consisted principally of 

 vast woods, which extended for a distance of three 

 leagues by one in breadth. 



M. de Kerouet, the father of the Duchess, ap- 

 pears to have differed from the general opinion of 

 the times, when the noblest families of France 



conceived themselves to be honoured when one of 

 their members became a royal mistress. His sense 

 of honour was deeply wounded at the disgrace 

 brought upon his name ; and notwithstanding the 

 riches and titles heaped upon his daughter, in the 

 bitterness of his heart he cursed her. When in 

 reward for the services the Duchess had rendered 

 France, Louis XIV. determined to raise her to 

 the peerage, he wrote the following letter to M. 

 de Kerouet, for the purpose of prevailing upon 

 him to withdraw his malediction : — 



" Mon feal et cher snjet. — Les services importants que 

 la Duchesse de Portsmouth h rend us a la France, m'ont 

 d&ide h la creer pairesse, sous la litre de Duchesse d'Au- 

 bigny, pour elle et toute sa descendance. 



" I'espere que vous ne serez pas plus s^vfere que votre 

 roi, et que vous retirerez la maMdiction que vous avez crn 

 devoir faire peser sur votre malheureuse fille. Je vous en 

 prie en ami, mon feal sujet, et vous le demande en roi. 



" Louis." 



What the result of this application was does 

 not appear ; but in after days the Duchess re- 

 turned to a better spirit, for St. Simon tells us, 

 that in 1718 she was very old, very penitent, and 

 perfectly converted ; but in spite of the vast sums 

 she had received in her days of worldly prosperity, 

 so reduced in circumstances that she was " reduite 

 ^ vivre dans sa campagne " (and what greater 

 misery could be inflicted upon a lively French- 

 woman ?), and that the B,egent augmented the 

 pension she received from the government from 

 12,000 to 20,000 livres. And the noble author 

 adds, — 



" II etoit juste et de bon exemple de se souvenir des 

 services importants et continuels qu'elle avoit rendus de 

 trfes-bonne grace h la France du temps qu'elle etait en 

 Angleterre, maitresse tres-puissante de Charles II." 



P. P. P. 



CAMPBELL OF MONZIE. " 

 (2»^ S. ix. 326.) 



In Playfair's Baronetage of Scotland, Appendix, 

 p. 6., to the account of Patrick Murray, b, 3 

 March, 1591, died 2 Feb. 1677, married Mary 

 Moray, d. of Sir William Moray of Abercairney, 

 Knt., b. 1587, died 29 July, 1667, a note is ap- 

 pended, tracing the history of eleven children of 

 this marriage : 



" I. Agnes, born at Abercairney the 20th of Xov. 1614. 

 On the 7th of July, 1633, she was married to Duncan 

 Campbell of Monzie, to whom she bore three sons and 

 two daughters, 1. Colin, born inCoige, 3d Nov. 1C35, who 

 married Anne, daughter of Sir Laurence Oliph^nt of 

 Gask (by whom he had Duncan Campbell, who married 



Anne Drummond, d. of Drumniond, of Machany, 



and died without issue ; Patrick Campbell, who succeeded 

 to the estate of Monzie, and married Catharine Areskine, 

 d. of Sir Charles Areskine, of Alva; James Campbell, 

 who was a surgeon in a man of war ; Colin Campbell, 

 was minister of Gask, where he died and was buried, 

 leaving an onlv son ; Anne Campbell, married to John 

 Grahame of Glendoich ; Elizabeth Campbell, married to 



