.. and a pretty gentleman in
our company, who confirms my Lady Castlemaine's being gone from court,
but knows not the reason; he told us of one wipe the queene, a little
while ago, did give her, when she came in and found the queene under the
dresser's hands, and had been so long. "I wonder your Majesty," says
she, "can have the patience to sit so long a-dressing?"--"I have so much
reason to use patience," says the queene, "that I can very well bear
with it."'
It was in the court of this injured queen that De Grammont went one
evening to Mrs. Middleton's house: there was a ball that night, and
amongst the dancers was the loveliest creature that De Grammont had ever
seen. His eyes were riveted on this fair form; he had heard, but never
till then seen her, whom all the world consented to call 'La Belle
Hamilton,' and his heart instantly echoed the expression. From this time
he forgot Mrs. Middleton, and despised Miss Warmestre: 'he found,' he
said, that he 'had seen nothing at court till this instant.'
'Miss Hamilton,' he himself tells us, 'was at the happy age when the
charms of the fair sex begin to bloom; she had the finest shape, the
loveliest neck, and most beautiful arms in the world; she was majestic
and graceful in all her movements; and she was the original after which
all the ladies copied in their taste and air of dress.
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