Amongst those who attended her in this manner was the gay,
graceful, and profligate Duke of Buckingham, who became enamoured
of her loveliness. Not only did he raise the most wonderful of
card mansions for her delight, but having a good voice, and she
possessing a passion for music, he invented songs and sung them
to pleasure her. Moreover, he told her the wittiest stories,
turned the courtiers into the greatest ridicule for her
entertainment, and made her acquainted with the most diverting
scandals. Finally, he professed his ardent love for her; but at
this the fair Stuart either felt, or feigned, intense
astonishment, and so repulsed him that he abandoned the pursuit
of an amour over which he had wasted so much time, and
thenceforth deprived himself of her company.
His attentions were, however, soon replaced by those of the Earl
of Arlington, a lord of the bedchamber, and a man of grave
address and great ambition. Owing to this latter trait his
lordship was desirous of winning the good graces of Miss Stuart
in the present, in hopes of governing his majesty in the future,
when she became the king's mistress. But these sage and
provident intentions of his were speedily overturned, for early
in the course of their acquaintance, when he had commenced to
tell her a story, his manner so forcibly reminded her of
Buckingham's mimicry of him, that she burst out laughing in the
earl's face. This being utterly uncalled for by the
circumstances of his tale, and still less by the manner of its
narration, Lord Arlington, who was serious, punctilious, and
proud, became enraged, abruptly left her presence, and abandoned
his schemes of governing the king through so frivolous a medium.
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