aged relative in the county of Devon, by whom indeed she had been
principally educated. It was at the dying instigation of this, her
last surviving friend and protector, that her destitute situation
had been represented to the king by the Lady Wriothesly, to whose
good offices she was indebted for her present honourable station.
Being however, as it were, friendless as well as dowerless, and
backed in my suit by the powerful assistance of the king's
approbation, I did not anticipate much opposition to my pretensions
to the hand of Miss Marchmont, which had now become the object of my
dearest ambition. I knew myself to be naturally formed for domestic
life; and while the disastrous position of public affairs had obliged
me to waste the days of my early youth in camps or courts, and in
exile from my own hereditary possessions, I resolved to pass the
evening of my life in the repose of a happy and well-ordered home
in my native country.

"To the vitiated taste of the gallants of the court, many of whom
might have proved powerful rivals, had they been so inclined,
marriage had no attractions. The acknowledged distaste of Charles for
a matrimonial life, and his avowed infidelities, sanctioned the
disdain of his dissolute companions for all the more holy and
endearing ties of existence. I had therefore little to fear from
competition; indeed among the maids of honour of the Queen, whose
situation threw them into hourly scenes of revelry and dissipation,
Theresa Marchmont, who was universally acknowledged to be the
loveliest of the train, excited less than any those attentions of
idle gallantry, which however, sought and prized by her livelier
companions, are offensive to true modesty. I attributed this
flattering distinction to the respect ensured by the extreme _retenue_
and propriety of her manners, but I have had reason since to ascribe