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216 "What a feeling of security," continued he, "is flung round the uncertainty of love, by the calm and gentle images with which it is here invested!—"

But their disquisition was interrupted by Lord Avonleigh, who came to announce that a deputation from Southampton waited without, full of eloquence and loyalty. From the reluctance with which the monarch rose from Madame de Soissons' side, this was evidently not half so attractive as the Parisian anecdotes, whose malice lost nothing in her hands. However, all hastened to the hall, and one half the day was spent in receiving the congratulations of the worthy mayor, and the remainder in ridiculing them.

The Duke of Buckingham, in an old wig which he borrowed from the steward, and his worship's actual red cloak, which had been purloined by his orders, the owner having lost all distinctions—even those of property, to which he was, generally speaking, keenly alive—in the canary which he had drained to the health of his most gracious Majesty;—in this said wig and cloak his Grace gave a most faithful representation of the pompous little magistrate, to the great amusement of the company, who had now no decorum to restrain their mirth. Lord