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fountain-head, as to wear a great face of probability. Query-what if the Pretender had taken up Dymock's gauntlet?

"I find that the Pretender's visit in England in the year 1753, was known to all the Jacobites; and some of them have assured me that he took the opportunity of formally renouncing the Roman Catholic religion, under his own name of Charles Stuart, in the New Church in the Strand! and that this is the reason of the bad treatment he met with at the court of Rome. I own that I am a sceptic with regard to the last particulars.

"Lord Marechal had a very bad opinion of this unfortunate prince, and thought there was no vice so mean or atrocious of which he was not capable; of which he gave several instances. My lord, though a man of great honour, may be thought a discontented courtier; but what quite confirmed me in that idea of that prince, was a conversation I had with Helvetius at Paris, which I believe I have told you. In case I have not, I shall mention a few particulars. That gentleman told me that he had no acquaintance with the Pretender; but some time after that prince was chased out of France, a letter, said he, was brought me from him, in which he told me, that the necessity of his affairs obliged him to be at Paris; and, as he knew me by character to be a man of

the greatest probity and honour in France, he would trust himself to me if I would promise to conceal and protect him. I own, added Helvetius to me, although I knew the danger to be greater of harbouring at Paris than at London; and although I thought the family of Hanover not only the lawful sovereigns in England, but the only lawful sovereigns in Europe, as having the free consent of the people; yet was I such a dupe to his flattery, that I invited him to my house, concealed him there, going and coming, near two years, had all his correspondence pass through my hands, met with his partisans upon Pont Neuf, and found at last that I had incurred all this danger and trouble for the most unworthy of all mortals; insomuch that I have been assured, when he went down to Nantz to embark on his expedition to Scotland, he took fright, and refused to go on board; and his attendants, thinking the matter gone too far, and that they would be affronted for his cowardice, carried him in the night-time into the ship, pied et mains liés. I asked him if he meant literally. Yes, said he, literally; they tied him, and carried him by main force. What think you now of this hero and conqueror?

"Both Lord Marechal and Helvetius agree, that with all this strange character, he was no bigot, but rather had learned the philosophers at Paris

to affect a contempt of all religion. You must know that both these persons thought they were ascribing to him an excellent quality. Indeed, you ought to laugh at me for my narrow way of thinking in those particulars. However, my dear Sir John, I hope you will do me the justice to acquit me.

I doubt not that these circumstances will appear curious to Lord Hardwicke, to whom you will please to present my respects. I suppose his lordship will think this unaccountable mixture of temerity and timidity in the same character, not a little singular.

"I am, yours very sincerely,

"1788, May.

"DAVID HUME.

VOL. I.

THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE.

As the object of this paper is to show the strange vicissitudes of life, as exemplified in the fortunes of the beautiful Countess of Strathmore,

it

may be as well to preface our tale by an account of her family connections. The extent and brilliancy of them will make the result more striking from the contrast of the brightest light with the deepest shadow.

John Lyon, fourth Earl of Stratmore, was married, at an early age, to Lady Elizabeth Stanhope, only child of Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield, and grand-daughter of the Duke of Ormonde, by whom he had a numerous family. They had, besides two daughters, six sons, who all succeeded each other in the family estates. Two of these died as Lords Glamis, and four

became successively Earls of Strathmore. Charles, the fourth of these. sons, was sixth Earl of Strathmore. He succeeded his elder brother in 1715, and in the year 1725, married one of the most beautiful women in Scotland, who was also one of the most highly born, and nobly allied, the Lady Susanna Cochrane, second daughter of John, fourth Earl of Dundonald. The paternal ancestry of this young lady was among the most ancient in the land, and the alliances which had been formed from generation to generation, added fresh lustre to her old family tree. Her grandmother, the wife of the second Earl of Dundonald, after whom she was named, was the Lady Susanna Hamilton, second daughter of William and Anne, Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, and her mother was the Lady Anne Murray, second daughter of Charles, first Earl of Dunmore, and grand-daughter of the Duke of Athol. Lady Dundonald was a virtuous and charming woman, whose early death was the cause of much grief to her numerous relations. She died in 1711, leaving her children very young; her eldest girl, Lady Anne, being only in her fifth year. Her husband married again in 1715, his second wife, being the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort, who died in 1722, having survived Lord Dundonald two years. Thus the three celebrated beauties, Anne, Susanna, and

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