The countess was so charmed by the performance of this athlete in
public, that she became desirous of conversation with him in
private; and he was accordingly introduced to her by Beck
Marshall, the player. The countess found his society so
entertaining that she frequently visited him, a compliment he
courteously returned. Moreover, she allowed him a yearly salary,
and openly showed her admiration for him by having their
portraits painted in one picture: in which she is represented
playing a fiddle, whilst he leans over her, touching the strings
of a guitar.
Her amours in general, and her intimacy with the rope-dancer in
particular, becoming common talk of the town, his majesty became
incensed; and it grieved him the more that one who dwelt in his
palace, and was yet under his protection, should divide her
favours between a king and a mountebank. Accordingly bitter
feuds arose between her and the monarch, when words of hatred,
scorn, and defiance were freely exchanged. His majesty
upbraiding her with a love for the rope-dancer, she replied with
much spirit, "it very ill became him to throw out such reproaches
against her: that he had never ceased quarrelling unjustly with
her, ever since he had betrayed his own mean low inclinations:
that to gratify such a depraved taste as his, he wanted the
pitiful strolling actresses whom he had lately introduced into
their society." Then came fresh threats from the lips of the
fury, followed by passionate storms of tears.
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