Hearing which, the countess
called out to the cook, "Zounds, you must set the house on fire
but it shall he roasted!" And roasted it was.
CHAPTER X.
Notorious courtiers.--My Lord Rochester's satires.--Places a
watch on certain ladies of quality.--His majesty becomes
indignant.--Rochester retires to the country.--Dons a disguise
and returns to town.--Practises astrology.--Two maids of honour
seek adventure.--Mishaps which befell them.--Rochester forgiven.
--The Duke of Buckingham.--Lady Shrewsbury and her victims.--
Captain Howard's duel.--Lord Shrewsbury avenges his honour.--A
strange story.--Colonel Blood attempts an abduction.--Endeavours
to steal the regalia.--The king converses with him.
Prominent among the courtiers, and foremost amid the friends of
his majesty, were two noblemen distinguished alike for their
physical grace, exceeding wit, and notable eccentricity. These
were the Earl of Rochester, and his Grace of Buckingham; gallants
both, whose respective careers were so intimately connected with
the court as to make further chronicle of them necessary in these
pages.
My Lord Rochester, though younger in years than the duke, was
superior to him in wit, comeliness, and attraction. Nor was
there a more conspicuous figure observable in the palace of
Whitehall than this same earl, who was ever foremost in pursuit
of such pleasures as wine begets and love appeases. His mirth
was the most buoyant, his conversation the most agreeable, his
manner the most engaging in the world; whence he became "the
delight and wonder of men, the love and dotage of women.
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