French maid-of-honour to his own advantage by raising up a
rival in the King's affections, who should be wholly governed by
himself. He therefore represented seriously to Louis that the only way
to secure Charles to French interests was to give him a French mistress;
and he told Charles jestingly that he ought to take charge of his
sister's favourite attendant, if only out of "decent tenderness for her
memory."

The delicate affair, in short, was soon arranged; an invitation, so
formally worded as to wear the semblance of propriety, was sent from the
English Court, and Louise immediately departed for Dieppe, escorted by
part of the Duke of Buckingham's suite, and his grace's promise to join
her with all convenient speed. But, as usual with the man whose
"ambition was frequently nothing more than a frolic, and whose best
designs were for the foolishest ends," who "could keep no secret nor
execute any design without spoiling it," he totally forgot both the lady
and his promise, and, leaving the forsaken demoiselle at Dieppe to cross
the Straits as she best might, sailed to England by way of Calais. Lord
Montagu, then our Ambassador at Paris, hearing of the Duke's escapade,
immediately sent over for a yacht, and ordered some of his own
attendants to convey her, with all honour, to Whitehall, where she was
received by Lord Arlington with all respect, and forthwith appointed
maid-of-honour to the Queen.

The intoxication of Charles was complete, and the man who had supported
patiently the furious outbreaks of Barbara Palmer[10] and the saucy
petulence of Nell Gwynne, was the more able to appreciate "les graces
decentes" of the foreign maid-of-honour, who, in the profaned walls of
Whitehall, diffused the delicate odour of Versailles.

[10] Duchess of Cleveland.

The purpose of her receiving an appointment at the Court of St. James's
was apparently foretold, for Madame de Sevigne thus writes to her
daughter:--"Ne trouvez-vous pas bon de savoir que Querouaille dont
l'etoile avait ete devinee avant qu'elle partit, l'a suivie
tres-fidelement? Le roi d'Angleterre l'a aimee, elle s'est trouvee avec
une legere disposition a ne le pas hair."[11]

[11] Letter 190.

It is doubtful, however, whether Charles did immediately enjoy his
conquest. If it be noted that the Duke of Richmond only came into the
world in 1672, we may be led to suppose that Mademoiselle Querouaille
did not yield without hesitation to the desires of