famous Prime Minister of France, was very beautiful, and was sought in marriage by Charles II. when in exile; but her uncle refused, and married her at the age of fifteen to Armand Charles de la Porte, Duc de la Meilleraie, on condition of his assuming the name of Mazarin, giving her 30,000,000 francs as a dowry. This marriage proved unhappy. With the aid of her brother, the Duc de Nevers, who procured horses for her, Hortensia fled to her sister Marie, married to the Connétable of Naples, the Duc de Colonna, then living in Rome.

The Duc de Mazarin instituted proceedings against his wife, who asked pardon and offered to return to him. He demanded, however, that she should first retire to a convent for two years on probation. This Hortensia refused, and as she possessed but a few jewels, she appealed in person to Louis XIV. to obtain for her some of her fortune. Accordingly, he arranged that her husband should allow her an income of 24,000 francs a year and 12,000 francs down. On obtaining this sum

she returned to Rome.

Her sister Marie, after years of happiness, having nearly lost her life in giving birth to a child, decided to desert her husband. The two sisters fled from Rome

disguised as men. Hortensia went to Chambéry in Savoy, and resided there three years in the society of agreeable and clever people. Marie also appealed to Louis, who had formerly loved her, but he did not approve of her conduct, and advised her to enter a convent, and one not too near his capital. The Connétable would have taken his wife back had she been willing to return, but she preferred retiring to a convent in Spain, where she occupied herself in literary pursuits.

Hortensia arrived in England in 1675, and was quickly followed by the Abbé de St. Réal, who was

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much attached to her. Charles, in consideration of his former friendship and in gratitude to Cardinal Mazarin, who had shown him much kindness during his exile, assigned her a pension of £4000 a year. She would probably have replaced the Duchess of Portsmouth in his Majesty's affections if it had not been for her penchant for the Prince of Monaco. Charles at first was irritated by the preference she showed for this man and stopped her pension, but in a few days thought better of it, feeling ashamed of this feeling of jealousy which had no real foundation.

The Duchess of Mazarin, Lady Sussex, the Prince of Monaco, and the Portuguese ambassador were to be seen on a balcony overlooking the pageant on Lord Mayor's Day 1675. Lord Sussex so much disliked his wife's intimacy with the Duchess of Mazarin that he threatened to take her into the country, but without avail.

One evening Lady Sussex and the Duchess of Mazarin,' who had both learnt to fence, went into St. James's Park with drawn swords under their "night gowns"-a term then given to evening dresses-drew, and made several fine passes, to the admiration of the onlookers.

When at last Lord Sussex succeeded in taking his wife away from the court, she showed extravagant affection for Madame Mazarin by kissing her portrait rapturously. In consequence of this devotion she got on so badly with her husband that the following year her mother, the Duchess of Cleveland, placed her in a convent in France, hoping to bring her to her senses.

After the Prince of Monaco's departure Hortensia set her affections on the Baron de Benier, a Swedish gentleman, a preference which excited the jealousy 1 Rutland MSS., H.M.C.

of Hortensia's nephew, Prince Philip of Savoie, son of the Comte de Soissons. He provoked and killed the baron in a duel. Hortensia's grief was such that she became ill, and threatened to join her sister and become

a nun.

St. Evremond, her great friend, represented to her how unsuitable such a life would be, and persuaded her to show herself once more to the world. From this time she gave herself up to entertaining; the wittiest and cleverest men of the period assembled at her house; others came to gamble, basset being the favourite game, We read that, in May 1676, the "Duke of York hath bought a new-built house of Lord Windsor's in St. James's Park and given it to Madame Mazarin to live in as long as she continues here. She supped about ten days agoe with Lady Harvey, who is her intimate friend, and the King came and surprised them both."

The Duchess of Mazarin was gifted with great vivacity and agreeable conversation. She appears to have inspired an extraordinary infatuation and love in her admirers. St. Evremond wrote an Oraison funebre upon her some years before her death; this took place in 1669 at Chelsea. She died in great poverty and obscurity, refusing to have either a doctor or a priest at her bedside. The Abbé de St. Réal published her Memoires in 1675.

Such, then, were some of the events that took place in Sarah's early childhood, and such was the court to which she was introduced at the age of twelve years.

Sarah's eldest sister Frances, on her occasional visits at home, had much to tell of her life at St. James's, firing the imagination of the lively and wayward girl, who was herself destined to grace the court.

Sarah spent many happy days at Water End House, running up and down the old oaken staircase in the

house of her forefathers, peeping out of the mullioned windows to look out on the busy farm life below; sometimes sitting in the wide chimney-nook of the barn-like hall listening to the tales her nurse had to tell of the doings of the Roundheads, the fear the great Cromwell had inspired, and of those stirring times when her father fought for the Royal cause and was taken prisoner; on warm sunny days dabbling in the brook that runs near the house, or scampering with her

brothers and sisters after the cocks and hens in the meadows, living the free life of a country child, whose beauty and charm were such that she domineered over and was worshipped by all her family, and was consequently spoilt.

Richard Jennings, who died in 1668, was buried at St. Albans, in the Abbey where most of his family had been laid to rest. His death had a great effect on his youngest child, who passionately loved and mourned her indulgent father. She was now left much to the care of her nurse and other servants in the old home at Sandridge. Mrs. Jennings mostly resided at St. James's Palace in the apartments granted her on her husband's death, in order to be near her daughter Frances, the frisky maid of honour. Her mother's dependents worshipped the beautiful, wayward child, and these same humble friends taught Sarah all the arts of housekeeping, so much thought of in those days, and for which she was renowned in after years.

In the seventeenth century it was considered part of a woman's necessary education to be a good cook and housewife. Enormous quantities of food were consumed by all classes. An ordinary feast would consist of sixteen dishes for the first course, followed by two or three other courses besides dessert. Home-made beer, cider, perry, and mead, also the care of foreign wines,

sometimes doctored to improve them, would all come under the house-mistress's superintendence. In addition to this the lady of the manor directed the dressing and carding of wool, flax, and hemp. Distilling scented waters and other mixtures, now given over to the chemist, were all in her department.

Very little other knowledge could Sarah have acquired during the four years of her life spent at Sandridge. The distance to London was not so great but that Sarah frequently visited her mother and sister at court, and played with the Princess Anne before she finally took up her abode there.

When this was decided upon in 1672, Mrs. Jennings fetched her young daughter from the country. In those days people who could not afford to keep a coach hired a waggon, but the Jennings were a family of consideration, and before the Civil War had been rich. The old coach was routed out, the farm horses attached to it, and Sarah and her mother travelled to St. James's in state.

There is a record of the Princess Anne, when quite a child, visiting Sandridge; no doubt on that occasion the coach was also called into requisition. Private carriages were very handsomely decorated with painted panels, carving, and gilding; plainer coaches were kept for travelling. Pepys mentions in his diary calling at the coachmaker's about a coach of his then being built. The windows were of glass, the frames gilt, the coach silvered all over and then varnished.

In honour of this new coach the horses' tails and manes were tied up with red ribbons, and the coachman drove with new green reins! The bodies of these carriages were mounted on high springs connected by long leather braces, which made the coach swing and tilt greatly.