' The truth is, that the Cardinal (Mazarin)
for six months together had not ordered her any money towards her
pension; that no tradespeople would trust her for anything and
there was not at her lodgings a single billet. You will do me
the justice to think that the princess of England did not keep
her bed the next day for want of a faggot. . . Posterity will
hardly believe that a princess of England, grand-daughter to
Henry the Great, hath wanted a faggot in the month of January, in
the Louvre, and in the eyes of the French court."] Pepys records
that the marriage of her majesty to the earl was commonly talked
of at the restoration; and he likewise mentions it was rumoured
"that they had a daughter between them in France. How true," says
this gossip, "God knows."
The earl's nephew, Henry Jermyn, is described as having a big
head and little legs, an affected carriage, and a wit consisting
"in expressions learned by rote, which he occasionally employed
either in raillery or love." For all that, he being a man of
amorous disposition, the number of his intrigues was no less
remarkable than the rank of those who shared them. Most notable
amongst his conquests was the king's eldest sister, widow of the
Prince of Orange--a lady possessing in no small degree natural
affections for which her illustrious family were notorious.
During the exile of Charles II., Henry Jermyn had made a
considerable figure at her court in Holland by reason of the
splendour of his equipage, entirely supported by his uncle's
wealth; he had likewise made a forcible impression on her heart
by virtue of the ardour of his addresses, wholly sustained by his
own effrontery.
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