people and the contamination exerted upon society
by her presence and conduct at court are what make up the indictment
of womanhood against him. Although many glimpses are afforded in
the gossipy news of the corrupt court of this courtesan's imperious
domination of Charles, nowhere is the story told more simply than
by Pepys in his _Diary_. He says: "Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, tells me
that, though the king and my Lady Castlemaine are friends again, she
is not at White Hall, but at Sir D. Harvey's, whither the king goes to
her; but she says she made him ask her forgiveness upon his knees,
and promise to offend her no more so, and that indeed she hath nearly
hectored him out of his wits."

Such incidents were not confined to the knowledge of the court
circles, but percolated all classes of society, and not only furnished
the newsmongers with racy scandal, but set in a whirl the light heads
of many foolish women who without such incitement from court example
might have remained models of virtue.

Another of the king's favorites--and indeed one who was, unlike the
disagreeable countess, a favorite as well with the English people, and
whose name has not yet lost its popularity--was Nell Gwynn. Pretty,
witty, and open-hearted, her face an index of the simplicity and
purity of character which the unfortunate circumstances of her birth
and bringing-up denied her, a veritable gem of womankind lost amid the
flotsam and jetsam of a coarse age, she is to be regarded less as
a sinner than as one sinned against, although she herself, perhaps,
seldom paused to reflect upon the moral value of her actions.

"How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
Which, like the canker in a fragrant rose,
Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name."

It will not do to judge too harshly the character of one whose whole
conduct showed how essentially guileless and gentle, as well as
generous, were her instincts by the rigorous standards which, however
severe, are none too exacting to be held up for women as representing
the only possible assurance of security for the status which they have
attained; but it is in no spirit of apology for her wrong courses that
all who undertake to discuss the life of Nell Gwynn are irresistibly
drawn to a recital of her virtues rather than to a reprobation of her
faults.

The poor orange girl, who, according to some authorities, first saw
the light of day in a miserable coalyard garret in Drury Lane, and
w