Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/291

Rh Obſerve him deſcending to the moſt abject trifling, ſtooping to the meaneſt expedients, and the orator and ſtateſman transformed to the vagabond and the wanderer.

No incident in this nobleman’s life has been repreſented more to his diſadvantage, and is in itſelf more intereſting than the following. The account which is here inſerted was ſent to a friend by the duke’s expreſs order.

A Scots peer with whom both the duke, and the ducheſs lived in great intimacy in Italy, happening to come to Paris, when the duke was there, they renewed their acquaintance and friendſhip, and for ſome time continued with mutual freedom, till the duke had reaſon to believe from what he heard from others, that the peer had boaſted favours from the ducheſs of Wharton.

This inſtance of wanton vanity, the duke could not help reſenting, though he often declared ſince the quarrel, that he never had the leaſt ſuſpicion of the ducheſs’s honour. He reſolved therefore very prudently to call the Scots lord to an account, without letting him know it was for the ducheſs or ſo much as mentioning her name; accordingly he took occaſion to do it in this manner.

It happened that the duke of Wharton and his lordſhip met at a lady’s whom they mutually viſited, and the duke dropping his glove by chance, his lordſhip took it up, and returned it to the duke; who thereupon aſked him if he would take it up in all it’s forms? To which his lordſhip anſwered, yes, my lord, in all its forms.

Some days after, the duke gave a ball at St. Germains, to which he invited the Scots nobleman, and ſome perſon indiſcretely aſked his grace whether he had forbid the ducheſs’s dancing with lord C. This gave the duke freſh reaſon to believe that the Scots peer had been adminiſtring new grounds for his reſentment, by the wantonneſs of calumny. He