1671.] THE DUCHESS OE PORTSMOUTH. 



309 



present, valued at 2000 pistoles, and told her that he wished 

 her to leave him one of her jewels as a token of her affection. 

 She readily promised compliance, and ordered Mademoiselle 

 de Ouerouaille to fetch her jewel-casket, when the king, 

 taking the hand of the beautiful maid of honour, said that 

 she was the jewel whom he coveted. The princess refused to 

 be a party to this arrangement and carried her maid of 

 honour back to France pure and undefiled ; but soon after 

 Henrietta was poisoned, Mademoiselle de Querouaille was 

 appointed a maid of honour to Queen Catherine, Queen of 

 Charles II., and eventually a lady of the bedchamber. From 

 the period of her being domesticated at the English court, 

 commencing at this Newmarket meeting, we find her a 

 spy on the actions of Charles, a mischief meddler in the 

 English court, a promoter of French interests, and the 

 cause of English debasement. There is no dishonest trans- 

 action, no profligate political intrigue, which disgraced the 

 last years of this unhappy reign, in which she does not appear 

 as a principal mover. The king's acceptance of a pension 

 from France, his disgraceful engagements with that country, 

 his crusade against parliaments, court jobberies, and the 

 treachery of England towards the Dutch, were alike hatched 

 in her closet and fostered under her influence. Thus could a 

 trifler and a beauty sway the destinies of Europe. With a 

 head teeming with wit, a stomach for greed, and a heart w^ith 

 the love of pleasure, the intriguing Frenchwoman was as much 

 detested by the nation as she was beloved by the king. 

 Charles continued more constant to her than to any of his 

 other mistresses ; indeed, she duped and enchanted him to the 

 end. Her apartments in the palace at Newmarket were 

 splendidly furnished, her tapestries magnificent, her pictures 

 incomparable, and her plate solid and sumptuous. Her 

 death took place at Aubigny, in France, in November, 1734, 

 having survived her royal lover nearly fifty years. 



Lord Arlington supplies the following incidents relating 

 to the royal visit, etc., to Newmarket during this meeting : — 

 Writing from Whitehall, September 7, 1671, to his Ex- 



