Page:Catherine of Bragança, infanta of Portugal, & queen-consort of England.djvu/265

1667] judge of the exquisite grace and perfection of Frances Stuart's form. Her wax image in Westminster Abbey- gives but a faint reflection of her beauty. It was taken years after, but before her death, by her own orders. In 1667 she was in the zenith of her love- liness. Charles pursued her with his attentions. They were seen together in the galleries of Whitehall, and he kissed her — an intimate condescension from royalty, though her relationship made it permissible. The tongues of the whole Court wagged. It was whispered that Mistress Stuart refused to listen to dishonourable proposals, being ambitious. Those who tried to flatter and please the King for their own benefit at once conceived the idea of a divorce from Catherine, which would leave the way open for " la belle Stuart." The Earl of Bristol, busybody as usual, actually had the audacity to send two friars to Portugal, after the death of Catherine's mother, to collect any kind of evidence that might be construed into proof that Catherine was incapable of bearing children. Charles derided his efforts, and told him it was quite impossible to proceed on any such grounds, as to his own certain knowledge the Queen had more than once held justified hopes of becoming a mother.

Clarendon's son. Lord Cornbury, had recently been appointed Catherine's Lord Chamberlain, and this made his enemies at the Court more than ever anxious to undermine the Lord Chancellor's influence. The populace reviled him, and declared he had brought about Catherine's marriage, knowing she could not have an heir, in order that the children of the Duchess of York might succeed. They called his house Tangier House, on account of the scandal which declared he had taken money from the Spanish to allow the cession of that town to them. This magnificent mansion, which he had built for himself, stood on the site of what are now Bond Street, Dover Street, and Albemarle Street. He had called it Clarendon House, but the people, after the sale of Dunkirk to