Stuarts

220 THE STUARTS
to be a man, have been esteemed handsome. In 17 14 he is described as
" always cheerful but seldom merry ; thoughtful but not dejected." An
English traveller in Rome in 1721 mentions the Chevalier's air of greatness,
and a smile that changed the sedateness of his first aspect into a very
graceful countenance. The poet Gray, writing in 1740, is less flattering.
"He is a thin ill-made man, extremely tall and awkward, of a most un-
promising countenance a good deal resembling King James II., and has
extremely the air and look of an idiot, particularly when he laughs or
prays. The first he does not often, the latter continually." This deprecia-
tory account of his appearance is belied by the fine profile portrait of him,
which I give, painted by T. Blanchet. He was at any rate genuinely
devout.
As to the charge of licentiousness against James, to which reference has
been made, and to which Thackeray gives credence in Esmond, by repre-
senting him as a libertine, it is probably greatly exaggerated, if not untrue,
although we are told that James kept a mistress at Bar de Due, when a
young man; but in 1716, says Mr. Lang, "he was railed at for his con-
tinence and ' cruelty ' to the Caledonian beauties, and, after his death, when
there was some talk of a bastard of his, those who had known him best
in Rome averred that the story must be false." That the relations between
him and Clementina were unhappy we know, indeed so estranged were
they, that in 1725, some six months after Henry, Duke of York, was born,
Clementina retired to a convent, and James complained of "the public
insult" of her retreat. The quarrel went on for some years; in 1734, how-
ever, they were reconciled, but Clementina's health was failing, she had
lived for some time an ascetic life, the austerity of which was attended with
fatal results, and in January of the following year she passed away. She
was but thirty-three. Poor Clementina ! James, it will be remembered,
lived to the age of seventy-eight, and died at Rome, January 1, 1766, having
survived his wife by more than thirty years.
I may add a few lines about portraits of the persons whose characters
we have just been discussing. They are numerous, and in the case of the
Old Chevalier, extend from infancy to advanced age. Thus Stonyhurst
College possesses several of him : one as a child, wearing a cap, white
dress, and lace apron ; he sits on a cushion and holds a parrot on his
extended right hand. When he was seven years old he was painted with
his sister, Louisa Maria Theresa, in a charming picture by N. de Largilliere.