easures which people at that age indulge
in without restraint; he was one of the brightest geniuses England
ever produced, for wit and humour, and for brilliancy of composition:
satirical and free in his poems, he spared neither frigid writers, nor
jealous husbands, nor even their wives: every part abounded with the
most poignant wit, and the most entertaining stories; but his most
delicate and spirited raillery turned generally against matrimony; and,
as if he wished to confirm, by his own example, the truth of what he had
written in his youth, he married, at the age of seventy-nine, this Miss
Brook of whom we are speaking, who was only eighteen.

The Duke of York had rather neglected her for some time before; but the
circumstance of so unequal a match rekindled his ardour; and she, on her
part, suffered him to entertain hopes of an approaching bliss, which a
thousand considerations had opposed before her marriage: she wished
to belong to the court; and for the promise of being made lady of the
bedchamber to the duchess, she was upon the point of making him another
promise, or of immediately performing it, if required, when, in the
middle of this treaty, Lady Chesterfield was tempted, by her evil
genius, to rob her of her conquest, in order to disturb all the world.

However, as Lady Chesterfield could not see the Duke of York, except
in public assemblies, she was under the necessity of making the most
extravagant advances, in order to seduce him from his former connection;
and as he was the most unguarded ogler of his time, the whole court was
informed of the intrigue before it was well begun.

Those who appeared the most attentive to their conduct were not the
least interested in it. Hamilton and Lord Chesterfield watched them
narrowly; but Lady Denham, vexed that Lady Chesterfield should have
stepped in before her, took the liberty of railing against her rival
with the greatest bitterness. Hamilton had hitherto flattered himself
that vanity alone had engaged Lady Chesterfield in this adventure; but
he was soon undeceived, whatever her indifference might have been when
she first commenced this intrigue. We often proceed farther than we at
first intended, when we indulge ourselves in trifling liberties which we
think of no consequence; for though perhaps the heart takes no part at
the beginning, it seldom fails to be engaged in the end.

The court, as we have mentioned before, was an entire scene of gallantry
and a