at everything will happen as I have foretold it."

At this time the king's attachment to Miss Stewart was so public, that
every person perceived, that if she was but possessed of art, she might
become as absolute a mistress over his conduct as she was over his heart.
This was a fine opportunity for those who had experience and ambition.
The Duke of Buckingham formed the design of governing her, in order to
ingratiate himself with the king: God knows what a governor he would have
been, and what a head he was possessed of, to guide another; however,
he was the properest man in the world to insinuate himself with Miss
Stewart: she was childish in her behaviour, and laughed at everything,
and her taste for frivolous amusements, though unaffected, was only
allowable in a girl about twelve or thirteen years old. A child,
however, she was, in every other respect, except playing with a doll:
blind man's buff was her most favourite amusement: she was building
castles of cards, while the deepest play was going on in her apartments,
where you saw her surrounded by eager courtiers, who handed her the
cards, or young architects, who endeavoured to imitate her.

She had, however, a passion for music, and had some taste for singing.
The Duke of Buckingham, who built the finest towers of cards imaginable,
had an agreeable voice: she had no aversion to scandal: and the duke was
both the father and the mother of scandal, he made songs, and invented
old women's stories, with which she was delighted; but his particular
talent consisted in turning into ridicule whatever was ridiculous in
other people, and in taking them off, even in their presence, without
their perceiving it: in short, he knew how to act all parts with so much
grace and pleasantry, that it was difficult to do without him, when he
had a mind to make himself agreeable; and he made himself so necessary to
Miss Stewart's amusement, that she sent all over the town to seek for
him, when he did not attend the king to her apartments.

He was extremely handsome, and still thought himself much more so than he
really was: although he had a great deal of discernment, yet his vanity
made him mistake some civilities as intended for his person, which were
only bestowed on his wit and drollery: in short, being seduced by too
good an opinion of his own merit, he forgot his first project and his
Portuguese mistress, in order to pursue a fancy in which he mistook
himself; for he no sooner b