terity of their lawful sovereign, exhausted themselves in
festivals and rejoicings for his return.

The Chevalier de Grammont arrived about two years after the restoration.
The reception he met with in this court soon made him forget the other;
and the engagements he in the end contracted in England lessened the
regret he had in leaving France.

This was a desirable retreat for an exile of his disposition.

Everything flattered his taste, and if the adventures he had in this
country were not the most considerable, they were at least the most
agreeable of his life. But before we relate them it will not be improper
to give some account of the English court, as it was at that period.

The necessity of affairs had exposed Charles II. from his earliest youth
to the toils and perils of a bloody war. The fate of the king his father
had left him for inheritance nothing but his misfortunes and disgraces.
They overtook him everywhere; but it was not until he had struggled with
his ill-fortune to the last extremity that he submitted to the decrees
of Providence.

All those who were either great on account of their birth or their
loyalty had followed him into exile; and all the young persons of the
greatest distinction having afterwards joined him, composed a court
worthy of a better fate.

Plenty and prosperity, which are thought to tend only to corrupt
manners, found nothing to spoil in an indigent and wandering court.
Necessity, on the contrary, which produces a thousand advantages whether
we will or no, served them for education; and nothing was to be seen
among them but an emulation in glory, politeness, and virtue.

With this little court, in such high esteem for merit, the King of
England returned two years prior to the period we mention, to ascend a
throne which, to all appearances, he was to fill as worthily as the
most glorious of his predecessors. The magnificence displayed on thus
occasion was renewed at his coronation.

The death of the Duke of Gloucester, and of the Princess Royal, which
followed soon after, had interrupted the course of this splendour by
a tedious mourning, which they quitted at last to prepare for the
reception of the Infanta of Portugal.

[The Princess Royal: Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., born
November 4th, 1631, married to the Prince of Orange, 2nd May, 1641,
who died 27th October, 1650. She arrived in England, September
23rd, and died of the smallpox, December 24th, 1