ys: "Her forehead was
open, white, and smooth; her hair was well set, and fell with ease
into that natural order which it is so difficult to imitate. Her
complexion was possessed of a certain freshness not to be equalled by
borrowed colours; her eyes were not large, but they were lovely, and
capable of expressing whatever she pleased; her mouth was full of
graces, and her contour uncommonly perfect; nor was her nose, which
was small, delicate, and turned-up, the least ornament of so lovely a
face. She had the finest shape, the loveliest neck, and most beautiful
arms in the world; she was majestic and graceful in all her movements;
and she was the original after which all the ladies copied in their
tastes and air of dress."

In reading the memoirs of the court of Charles II., one is apt to
overlook the fact that at the period there was a queen in England.
There was a time when the consort of the king was not so styled; her
position was a personal one, as related to her husband, but she did
not share the honors of the throne. How strangely reversed since the
later Anglo-Saxon period, as contrasted with the reign of Charles II.,
had become the relation of the wife of the monarch! for in these last
times the full recognition was tendered Catherine of Braganza to
which her position as consort of Charles gave her title--there was no
question as to there being a queen in England in the full meaning of
the term. But her personal relation to the king as her husband was
an equivocal one; perhaps once in a month he might honor her with
his presence at supper, and occasionally absent himself from the
enticements of his mistresses. It was so from the very first; for,
before Catherine had landed in England, the intrigue of Charles II.
with the notorious Castlemaine was a matter of common knowledge. The
graceless king had the effrontery to include Lady Castlemaine in the
list of appointees for the queen's following. The indignant bride
had not yet learned the futility of seeking to assert her rightful
position, and, haughtily declaring that she would return to her own
country rather than submit to such an indignity, drew her pen across
the name and swept Lady Castlemaine from proximity to her person. In
so doing she incurred the deeper enmity of the female fury who ruled
Charles with an iron will and was for long years to be the queen's
evil genius. The queen was not brilliant, but she was in every sense
a woman; and when on a partic