JAMES THE SECOND.

34 ?

expect the highest employments under the French crown. chap.Then his fortunes had undergone an eclipse. Lewis had 1688 ;driven from him the friend of his youth with bitter reproaches,and had, it was said, scarcely refrained from adding blows.

The fallen favourite had been sent prisoner to a.fortress: buthe had emerged from his confinement, had again enjoyed thesmiles of his master, and had gained the heart of one of thegreatest ladies in Europe, Anna Maria, daughter of Gaston,

Duke of Orleans, granddaughter of King Henry the Fourth,and heiress of the immense domains of the house of Mont-pensier. The lovers were bent on marriage. The royalconsent was obtained. During a few hours Lauzun was re-garded by the court as an adopted member of the house ofBourbon. The portion which the princess brought with hermight well have been an object of competition to sovereigns;three great dukedoms, an independent principality with itsown mint and with its own tribunals, and an income greatlyexceeding the whole revenue of the kingdom of Scotland.

But this splendid prospect had been overcast. The matchhad been broken off. The aspiring suitor had been, duringmany years, shut up in an Alpine castle. At length Lewisrelented. Lauzun was forbidden to appear in the royal pre-sence, but was allowed to enjoy liberty at a distance from thecourt. He visited England, and was well received at thepalace of James and in the fashionable circles of London; forin that age the gentlemen of France were regarded throughoutEurope as models of grace; and many Chevaliers and Vis-counts, who had never been admitted to the interior circle atVersailles, found themselves objects of general curiosity andadmiration at Whitehall. Lauzun was in every respect theman for the present emergency. He had courage and a senseof honour, had been accustomed to eccentric adventures,and, with the keen observation and ironical pleasantry of afinished man of the world, had a strong propensity to knighterrantry. All his national feelings and all his personal in-terests impelled him to undertake the adventure from whichthe most devoted subjects of the English crown seemed toshrink. As the guardian, at a perilous crisis, of the Queen