the fact, that while others were draining the illsupplied coffers of the little court of St. Germains for their own use, he himself exhausted in his master's service the greater part of the money which he had saved from the wreck of his fortunes.

The evidence of the celebrated Duke of Berwick,—a man who was as little likely to be prejudiced in favour of Bolingbroke, as he was capable of telling an untruth,-is alone sufficient to establish the innocence of the disgraced secretary. The Duke, after speaking of the dismissal of Bolingbroke, by his half-brother, the Pretender, as "an enormous blunder," proceeds, "I was in part a witness how he acted for King James, whilst he managed his affairs, and I owe him the justice to say, that he left nothing undone of what he could do. He moved heaven and earth to obtain supplies, but was always put off by the court of France; and though he saw through their pretexts and complained of them, yet there was no other power to which he could apply.”

After quitting the service of the Pretender, Bolingbroke passed a few months in the French capital, where his literary reputation and conversational powers procured for him the friendship and admiration of the French savans, at a period when an illustrious assemblage of talent rendered the close of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth the Augustan era of France.

Notwithstanding his accumulated misfortunes,

Bolingbroke continued to maintain his reputation of being a man of gallantry, and to mingle the pursuit of pleasure with graver avocations and tastes. He formed a connection with the beautiful Madame Tencin, so celebrated for her love of gallantry and her taste for political intrigues; and, subsequently, maintained as his acknowledged mistress a young girl who had made her escape from a convent. From the memoirs of ElizabethCharlotte, Duchess of Orleans, we learn that his intrigue with this unfortunate female afforded considerable amusement to the fashionable circles of Paris, and that the following verses on the subject were much in vogue at that period :

"Bolingbroke, es-tu possédé ?

Quel est ton désir chimérique,

De t'amuser à chevaucher
La fille de Saint-Dominique ?
Crois-tu que
d'elle et d'un Torris
Il en puisse naître l'anti-christ?
Penses-tu donc plaire au régent,
En suivant toujours cette guenipe?
Il l'a ratée, il y a trois ans,
Il a juré par Saint-Philippe,
Qu'il méprisera tout mortel
Sacrifiant à cet autel."

According to the Duchess, it was believed by many persons that the young girl, notwithstanding her frailty, continued a religieuse at heart. "But," adds the Duchess, "she had long run after my own son, without, however, being successful in the pursuit." Bolingbroke formed,

L 2

about the same time, an acquaintance with a beautiful and accomplished woman, who, on the death of Lady Bolingbroke, two years afterwards, became his second wife. This lady was Mary Clara Des Champs de Marsilly, widow of the Marquis de Villette, and a niece of Madame de Maintenon. Madame de Villette was surrounded by a host of admirers, and as it was not in Bolingbroke's power to make her his wife, the circumstance that she was free to confer her hand upon another, seems to have occasioned him inexpressible pain.

Among his rivals was a handsome Scotch adventurer of the name of M'Donald, who held a high appointment in the service of the Pretender. We mention this person, because the jealousy with which Bolingbroke regarded his attentions to Madame de Villette hurried him, at least on one occasion, to very indecorous lengths. One day, indeed, at the table of the Marchioness, he attempted to inflict personal chastisement on his rival. On the occasion referred to, he rose from his seat in a moment of ungovernable passion, and, in making his way towards the offender, upset the table at which the company were seated, and fell prostrate among the broken dishes. One of the guests, the Marquis de Matignon, for the time, assuaged his angry feelings; but his jealousy is said to have, afterwards, frequently broken out, at any attention paid by his rival to the object of their mutual regard.

The death of Lady Bolingbroke occurred in

November, 1718, and in May, 1720, Bolingbroke was privately married to the Marchioness de Villette. It was a step which he never had occasion to repent. By her lively manners, her affectionate disposition, and forbearing temper, the Marchioness rendered herself necessary to his happiness, and, probably, appeared the more charming from the fact of his first wife having been an object of indifference and even of dislike. She entered into his literary tastes, was a sharer of his political prejudices, was indulgent to his errors, and appreciated, and was proud of, his genius. Moreover, she was possessed of a considerable fortune, which, in the present state of Bolingbroke's finances and with his expensive tastes and habits, was a circumstance of the first importance to him. Intent on accommodating herself to all her husband's necessities, she was even complaisant enough to profess herself of the Reformed religion. This also was an important object to Bolingbroke, for had it been known in England that he had united himself to a Roman Catholic, the circumstance would, unquestionably, have been fatal to his hopes of obtaining a pardon.

Shortly before his marriage, Bolingbroke had purchased a small estate, called La Source, near Orleans, where henceforward he resided till the period of his recall. The spot was a beautiful one; the taste which he displayed in its adornment is said to have been exquisite, and his hospitality unbounded. In a letter to Swift, he styles it

his "hermitage," and speaking of the small river Loiret, which took its source close to his chateau, he says, "I have in my wood the biggest and clearest spring in Europe, which forms, before it leaves the park, a more beautiful river than any which flows in Greek or Latin verse." It was one of his fancies, at this period, to adorn his house and grounds with such inscriptions, as either had reference to the circumstances of his exile, or to the equanimity with which he professed to endure his misfortunes. One inscription, in particular,which he placed over the portico of his house,-is worthy of being recorded. If it really spoke the sentiments of his mind, it would have been creditable to the principles of a Stoic philosopher.*

The retreat of Bolingbroke at La Source was frequently resorted to by the first men of genius from the French capital. Among those who enjoyed the hospitality of the exile was Voltaire, then a young man, who, to the close of his long life, spoke enthusiastically of the enchanting visits which he paid to "Milord Bolingbroke et Madame de Villette." Referring to the former, he says, in a letter to Teriot, "J'ai trouvé dans cet

* The inscription here alluded to is as follows:-"Si resipiscat patria, in patriam rediturus. Si non resipiscat, ubivis melius quam inter tales cives futurus: hanc villam instauro et exorno: hinc, velut ex portu, alienos casus et fortunæ ludum insolentem cernere suave est. Hîc, mortem nec appetens nec timens, innocuis deliciis, doctâ quiete et felicis animi immotâ tranquilitate, fruiscor. Hic mihi vivam quod super est aut exilii aut ævi.”