On the
revelation of this wicked scheme the country became wildly
excited, and the king grievously afflicted. A melancholy seized
upon his majesty, who stirred not abroad without double guards;
and the private doors of Whitehall and avenues of the park were
closed.
From this condition, however, he gradually recovered, and resumed
his usual habits. Accordingly, we find him engaged in "luxurious
dalliance and prophaneness" with the Duchess of Mazarine, and
visiting the Duchess of Portsmouth betimes in her chamber, where
that bold and voluptuous woman, fresh risen from bed, sat in
loose garments talking to the king and his gallants, the while
her maids combed her beautiful hair.
"I can never forget," says John Evelyn, writing on the 4th of
February, 1685, "the inexpressible luxury and prophaneness,
gaming, and all dissoluteness, and as it were total
forgetfullnesse of God (it being Sunday evening), which this day
se'nnight I was witnesse of, the king sitting and toying with his
concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarine, etc., a French
boy singing love songs in that glorious gallery, whilst about
twenty of the greate courtiers and other dissolute persons were
at basset round a large table, a bank of at least two thousand in
gold before them, upon which two gentlemen who were with me made
reflexions with astonishment. Six days after was all in the
dust."
For now the end of all things had come for Charles Stuart. It
happened on the morning of the 2nd of February, 1685, the day
being Monday, the king whilst in his bedroom was seized by an
apoplectic fit, when crying out, he fell back in his chair, and
lay as one dead.
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