Lives of the last four princesses of the royal house of Stuart

272 THE PRINCESS HENRIETTA ANNE. [16.69.
directly. Here you are ! Set off back again imme-
diately."
Some months, afterwards, better success attended the
intercessions of the loving sister with her kind mistress.
Henrietta at last persuaded her royal brother-in-law, to
legalise the return of the Chevalier, who had married Miss
Hamilton in England, and settled down into the semblance
of better behaviour. Charles II. writes thus to his sister
when they came to bid him farewell : —
" I writ to you yesterday, by the Count de Gramont,
but I believe this letter will come sooner to your hands,
for he goes by way of Dieppe, with his wife and family.
And now I have named her, I cannot choose but again
desire you to be kind to her, for besides the merit her
family has on both sides, she is as good a creature as ever
lived. She will pass for a handsome woman in France,
though she has not yet recovered her good shape, lately
lost, and I am afraid never will."*
Henrietta, was much troubled, in her own house, by the
impertinent conduct of her consort's great favourite, the
Chevalier de Lorraine, the illegitimate brother of the
Duke de Lorraine. He was very handsome and dissipated,
and assumed an authority in the family, very displeasing
to Madame, and all her complaints were treated with dis-
regard by Monsieur. Madame de St. Chaumont, seeing
how sorely mortified Henrietta was, mentioned her annoy-
ance privately to the King. Louis immediately spoke to
his brother on the subject, and reproved him for permitting
his minion to render his consort uneasy. Monsieur, much
offended at his royal brother's interference, took Henrietta
to Villers Coterets, where she was reluctantly compelled
to pass some time in the society of her sullen husband
and his unpleasant favourite, the Chevalier de Lorraine.
* Dalrymplc, vol. ii. p. 26.