he was in her youth little,
brown, and thin, but became a 'short fat body,' as De Grammont tells us,
in her early married life; in the later period of her existence she was
described by the Vicomtesse de Longueville as a 'little round crumpled
woman, very fond of finery;' and she adds that, on visiting the duchess
one day, she found her, though in mourning, in a kind of loose robe over
her, all edged and laced with gold. So much for a Puritan's daughter!

To this insipid personage the duke presented himself. She soon liked
him, and in spite of his outrageous infidelities, continued to like him
after their marriage.

He carried his point: Mary Fairfax became his wife on the 6th of
September, 1675, and, by the influence of Fairfax, his estate, or, at
all events, a portion of the revenues, about L4,000 a year, it is said,
were restored to him. Nevertheless, it is mortifying to find that in
1682, he sold York House, in which his father had taken such pride, for
L30,000. The house was pulled down; streets were erected on the
gardens: George Street, Villiers Street, Duke Street, Buckingham Street,
Off Alley recall the name of the ill-starred George, first duke, and of
his needy, profligate son; but the only trace of the real greatness of
the family importance thus swept away is in the motto inscribed on the
point of old Inigo's water-gate, towards the street: '_Fidei coticula
crux_.' It is sad for all good royalists to reflect that it was not the
rabid Roundhead, but a degenerate Cavalier, who sold and thus destroyed
York House.

The marriage with Mary Fairfax, though one of interest solely, was not a
_mesalliance_: her father was connected by the female side with the
Earls of Rutland; he was also a man of a generous spirit, as he had
shown, in handing over to the Countess of Derby the rents of the Isle of
Man, which had been granted to him by the Parliament. In a similar
spirit he was not sorry to restore York House to the Duke of Buckingham.

Cromwell, however, was highly exasperated by the nuptials between Mary
Fairfax and Villiers, which took place at Nun-Appleton, near York, one
of Fairfax's estates. The Protector had, it is said, intended Villiers
for one of his own daughters. Upon what plea he acted it is not stated:
he committed Villiers to the Tower, where he remained until the death of
Oliver, and the accession of Richard Cromwell.

In vain did Fairfax solicit his release: Cromwell refused it, and
Villiers rema