This letter made him perfectly contented; he had no reason to question
the continuance of Dorilaus's goodness to him, nor that he should attend
this new proof of it any longer than the return of that gentleman to
England should make him know the occasion he now had for it.
He
therefore had no anxious thoughts to interrupt the pleasures the place
he was in afforded in such variety; he was every evening with the baron,
either at court, the opera, the comedy, or some other gay scene of
entertainment; was introduced to the best company; and his young heart,
charm'd with the politeness and gallantry of that nation, and the little
vanity to which a person of such early years is incident, being
flattered with the complaisance he was treated with, gave him in a short
time a very strong affection for them; but there was yet another and
more powerful motive which rendered his captivity not only pleasing, but
almost destroyed in him an inclination ever to see his native
country again.
The baron de la Valiere had long been passionately in love with a young
lady, who was one of the maids of honour to king James's queen: he went
almost every day to St. Germains, in order to prosecute his addresses,
and frequently took Horatio with him. The motive of his first
introducing him to that court was, perhaps, the vanity of shewing him
that no reverse of fate could make the French regardless of what was due
to royalty, since the Chevalier St. George seem'd to want no requisite
of majesty but the power; but he afterwards found the pleasure he took
in those visits infinitely surpassed what he could have expected, and
that his heart had an attachment, which made him no sooner quit that
palace than he would ask with impatience when they should go thither
again. The baron had a great deal of penetration; and as those who feel
the power of love in themselves can easily perceive the progress it
makes in others, a very few visits confirmed him that Horatio had found
something there more attractive than all he could behold elsewhere: nor
was he long at a loss to discover, among the number or beauties which
composed the trains of the queen and princess, which of them it was that
had laid his prisoner under a more lasting captivity than war had done.
Princess Louisa Maria Teresa, daughter of the late king James, was then
but in her thirteenth year; the ladies who attended her were all of them
much of the same age; and to shew the respect the French had for this
royal family, tho' in misfortunes, were also the daughters of persons
whose birth and fortune might have done honour to the service of the
greatest empress in the world; nor were any of them wanting in those
perfections which attract the heart beyond the pomp of blood or titles;
but she who had influenced that of our Horatio, was likewise in the
opinion of those, who felt not her charms in the same degree he did,
allowed to excel her fair companions in every captivating grace, and to
yield in beauty to none but the princess herself, who was esteemed a
Prodigy. This amiable lady was called Charlotta de Palfoy, only daughter
to the baron of that name; and having from her most early years
discovered a genius above what is ordinarily found in her sex, had been
educated by her indulgent parents in such a manner, as nature left
nothing for want of the improvements of art; yet did not all the
accomplishments, she was mistress of give her the least air of
haughtiness; on the contrary, there was a certain sweetness of temper in
her which gave a double charm to every thing she said or did: she was
all affability, courtesy and chearfulness; she could not therefore avoid
treating so agreeable a stranger as Horatio with all imaginable marks of
civility; but she had been a very small time acquainted with him before
her liking ripened into a kind of tenderness little inferior to what he
was possessed of for her; and tho' both were then too young to be able
to judge of the nature of this growing inclination, yet they found they
loved without knowing to what end.
As both the Chevalier St. George and the princess his sister were
instructed in the English language, and besides many of their court were
natives of Great Britain, whose loyalty had made them follow the exil'd
monarch, the French belonging to them had also an ambition to speak in
the same dialect: mademoiselle Charlotta being but lately come among
them had not yet attained the proper accent, any more than Horatio had
that of the French; so they agreed that to improve each other in the
different languages, he should always speak to her in French, and she
should answer him in English. This succeeded not only for the purpose it
was intended, but likewise drew on a greater intimacy between them than
might otherwise have happened, at least in so short a time.
The baron having a real friendship for Horatio, rejoiced to find he had
so powerful an attachment to continue among them, and without taking any
notice how far he saw into his sentiments, encouraged his visits at St.
Germains all he could. Thus indulged in every thing he wished, he began
insensibly to lose all desires of returning to England, and receiving no
letters either from Dorilaus or his sister, was as it were weaned from
that affection he had formerly bore to them, and in the room of that the
new friendships he was every day contracting took up his mind.
He was indeed used with so much love and respect by people in the most
eminent stations, to whom the baron had introduced him, that it would
have been ungrateful in him not to have returned it with the greatest
good-will.
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