he sometimes ascended in his private capacity to try the effect of his eloquence, under the character of a lover. The Prince of Wales and all his friends aided a cause which, by rendering Fox independent in his fortune, would have healed the wounds. inflicted by his early indiscretions. General Fitzpatrick usually kept a place for him near the lady, and for some time the courtship assumed so auspicious an appearance, that Hare one day, speculating on the probable issue of the marriage, said with admirable humour, that they would be inevitably duns, with black manes and tails,' alluding to the lady's fair complexion and red hair, contrasted with the dark hue of Mr. Fox. The affair, however, ultimately went off like the former, and Mr. Fox at length entered the married state with the Mrs. Armstead, of ci-devant notoriety.

From this lamentable period of the life of his Royal Highness we turn to one of the most important events of it-his connexion with Mrs. Fitzherbert.

This lady was a widow of great accomplishments and beauty, and was some years older than the Prince. She was, unquestionably, a most beautiful woman, but perhaps too much inclined to fulness of figure; and yet it may be said that she was indebted to that prominence of habit for a great portion of her personal loveliness and attraction. She was allied, on her father's side, to Sir Edward Smythe, of Acton Burnel, in the county of Salop, and distantly related to the noble family of Sefton, in the kingdom of Ireland. The family of Smythe was of ancient origin in the county, and possessed all the pride common to those who can look far back to an illustrious and honourable ancestry. There cannot be any reason to suppose that Mrs. Fitzherbert was insensible to the distinctions of her family; and her education having been completed in France, this principle was not likely to lose its influence. Her first marriage was into one of the most wealthy families of the Roman Catholic religion in this kingdom; and, having been once the mistress of Lulworth Castle, belonging to the Weld family, was a circumstance of no small dignity to private life. Her second marriage, with Mr. Fitzherbert, of Swinnerton, in Staffordshire, continued her in that state of habitual importance which would effectually preserve her from being tempted

into any degradation of her character. The dowers and legacies of her different marriages qualified her to command all the elegancies of fashionable life; and therefore it became the public opinion, that the relation in which she stood with the Prince of Wales could only be justified to herself by the solemnity of some engagement, or the sanction of some ceremony, whatever the nature of that ceremony may have been.

The first time that the Prince of Wales saw Mrs. Fitzherbert, was in Lady Sefton's box at the Opera; and the novelty of her face, more than the brilliancy of her charms, had the usual effect of enamouring the Prince. But in this instance he had not to do with a raw inexperienced girl, but with an experienced dame, who had been twice a widow, and who consequently was not likely to surrender upon common terms. She looked forward to a more brilliant prospect which her ambition might artfully suggest, founded upon the feeble character of an amorous young Prince; and when his Royal Highness first declared himself her admirer, she gave him not the slightest hope of success, but, in the true spirit of the finished coquette, she turned away from his protestations, and in order to avoid his importunities, quitted the kingdom, and took up her residence at Plombiers, in Lorrain, in France. The lovely idol knew that an object that is easily gained is seldom esteemed or prized; the Prince, indeed, from his peculiar situation as heirapparent, could not follow her, although it is stated, in an anonymous letter preserved in the British Museum, that his Royal Highness did once travel to Paris incog., and that he had there an interview with Mrs. Fitzherbert, the consequence of which was, her immediate return to England. As there is no other authority for this act of his Royal Highness, and taking the improbability of the event into consideration, it must be left with all the doubt attached to it, acknowledging, at the same time, that the preponderancy leans to the side of it being a fiction.

The residence of Mrs. Fitzherbert at Plombiers was not of long duration; and in describing the cause of her removal, as it implicates the character of the lady in a most serious manner, we shall give it, without any comment, exactly as it appears in a pamphlet contained in the above-mentioned institution the writer of which professes to have been most intimately

acquainted with all the proceedings of Mrs. Fitzherbert during

her residence on the Continent:

At Plombiers, Mrs. Fitzherbert contracted an intimacy with the Marquess de Bellois, acknowledged to be one of the handsomest men in France, with whom she withdrew for some time, and lived in the greatest familiarity. The consequence of this intercourse was the necessity of retiring to Paris, where, by means of two of her friends, the scandalous transaction was industriously concealed *.'

It was now known that the Prince had sent his emissaries to discover the residence of Mrs. Fitzherbert, and in order to prevent the above circumstance coming to the ears of the Prince, she was recommended by Mr. Bouverie, and Mr. Errington, her cousin, both of whom were afterwards present at her marriage, to return without loss of time to England.

In justice to the character of Mrs. Fitzherbert, we must admit that the whole of this transaction is strongly tinctured with improbability; and yet it cannot be supposed that any person (although ex-officio informations might not then have been so much in fashion as at the present day) would have been bold enough to have promulgated so serious a charge against a lady then universally known to be the favourite of the Prince of Wales-by some supposed and by others known to be his wife without having good and incontrovertible, and, if we may be allowed the expression, almost divine proofs to adduce for the truth of it. We found our opinion on the improbability of such a criminal intercourse having taken place between Mrs. Fitzherbert and the Marquess, on the ground, that although the former had absented herself from England, yet still that she had an eye to the heir-apparent to the crown of it; and it is not consistent with probability, that she would so far have compromised her character, and thereby have frustrated every hope which her ambition might have cherished, by the formation of a connexion, which would have rendered her rather an object of disgust than of affection to her royal lover.

We have given the facts as they are stated in the letter of

In the letter of Nemesis to Alfred, the author, in a note, says, 'Does the author of Nemesis design to insinuate that Plombiers was unable to furnish a midwife, and other accommodations necessary for a lady obedient to the Divine command, "increase and multiply?” '