X The Duchess of Newcastle 



fraud, spite, slander, and the like." To a boarding 

 school she never went, but she did go to court as maid- 

 of-honour to the Queen, Henrietta Maria. The court 

 was then at Oxford; in 1643 to be exact. The episode, 

 as she narrates it in the Memoirs, suggests again her 

 home-bred temper and her unfitness for court life: " It 

 is better to live with love than with state, . . . with 

 wit than with company," runs one of her aphorisms. 

 If we would add a further single portrait to the family- 

 group of Lady Lucas and her daughters, we might do so 

 by recalling her lines in a Lady Dressed by Youth, which 

 fits very well her fancy-sketch of herself: 



" As lace her bashfiil eyelids downward hung: 

 A modest countenance o'er her face was flung: 

 Blushes, as coral beads, she strung to wear 

 About her neck, and pendants for each ear; 



• ••«••• 



Thus drest, to Fame's great court straightways she went 

 To dance a brawl with Youth, Love; Mirth, Content. 



After two years of intermitted Court life, she was 

 fortunate enough to meet at Paris with the famous 

 exile destined to be her husband — William Cavendish, 

 who was at that time Marquis of Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

 The Marquis was a man of fifty-three, a widower; one 

 whose story made him a personage of extraordinary 

 interest to such as herself. It appears that his curiosity, 

 along with a certain chivalrous feeling for Margaret 

 Lucas, had been aroused by her brother, " the Lord 

 Lucas," as she terms him in the Life. Professor Firth 

 cites Evelyn's Diary to show that they were married 

 in Sir Richard Browne's Chapel at Paris. 



A good deal has to be added, and something has to be 

 taken away, before her after account of the Duke's life 

 can be tied to the real events in which he had taken 

 part. She over-estimated his effect both as soldier and 

 author. She says of him as a soldier ; that in all actions 

 where he was "in person himself," he was victorious; 

 whatsoever was lost happened in his absence, and was 

 caused either by the treachery or negligence and care- 

 lessness of his officers. Again in one dedication she speaks 



