with horror, of baseness less monstrous than this; and the little
concern I have met with about it in most people's minds, has obliged
me to make, I believe, a thousand times, this reflection,--that
examples of times past move men beyond comparison more than those of
their own times. We accustom ourselves to what we see; and I have
sometimes told you, that I doubted whether Caligula's horse being
made a consul would have surprised us so much as we imagine."
--Memoirs, vol. i., p. 261. As for the relative situation of the king
and Lord Jermyn, (afterwards St. Albans,) Lord Clarendon says, that
the "Marquis of Ormond was compelled to put himself in prison, with
other gentlemen, at a pistole a-week for his diet, and to walk the
streets a-foot, which was no honourable custom in Paris, whilst the
Lord Jermyn kept an excellent table for those who courted him, and
had a coach of his own, and all other accommodations incident to the
most full fortune: and if the king had the most urgent occasion for
the use but of twenty pistoles, as sometimes he had, he could not
find credit to borrow it, which he often had experiment of."
--History of the Rebellion, vol. iii., p. 2.]

Jermyn, supported by his uncle's wealth, found it no difficult matter to
make a considerable figure upon his arrival at the court of the Princess
of Orange: the poor courtiers of the king her brother could not vie with
him in point of equipage and magnificence; and these two articles often
produce as much success in love as real merit: there is no necessity for
any other example than the present; for though Jermyn was brave, and
certainly a gentleman, yet he had neither brilliant actions, nor
distinguished rank, to set him off; and as for his fibre, there was
nothing advantageous in it. He was little: his head was large and his
legs small; his features were not disagreeable, but he was affected in
his carriage and behaviour. All his wit consisted in expressions learnt