Buckingham, that complaisant companion of "the merry monarch," who, "everything by turns and nothing long," having been the first to observe the impression the mignonne maid-of-honour had made on the King's susceptible fancy, had little hesitation in attaching to his diplomatic office the very undignified one of Sir Pandarus, and therefore with a brave defiance of decorum bent all his efforts to overcome the scruples, if any there might be, lingering in the mind of Louise with regard to transferring herself to the service of the Queen of England, poor Catherine of Braganza. As she was then placed through the death of the Duchess of Orleans, a convent was the only retreat Mademoiselle Querouaille could look forward to in France; and as religious seclusion was not at all congenial to the lively nymph, she was not found impracticable to Buckingham's overtures. Nor were the latter's efforts entirely disinterested in the matter. He had lately had a fierce quarrel with "old Rowley's" imperious mistress, the Duchess of Cleveland, and having sworn hatred and revenge against that profligate beauty, sought to turn the French maid-of-honour to his own advantage by raising up a rival in the King's affections, who should be wholly governed by himself. He therefore represented seriously to Louis that the only way to secure Charles to French interests was to give him a French mistress; and he told Charles jestingly that he ought to take charge of his sister's favourite attendant, if only out of "decent tenderness for her memory." The delicate affair, in short, was soon arranged; an invitation, so formally worded as to wear the semblance of propriety, was sent from the English Court, and Louise immediately departed for Dieppe, escorted by part of the Duke of Buckingham's suite, and his grace's promise to join her with all convenient speed. But, as usual with the man whose "ambition was frequently nothing more than a frolic, and whose best designs were for the foolishest ends," who "could keep no secret nor execute any design without spoiling it," he totally forgot both the lady and his promise, and, leaving the forsaken demoiselle at Dieppe to cross the Straits as she best might, sailed to England by way of Calais. Lord Montagu, then our Ambassador at Paris, hearing of the Duke's escapade, immediately sent over for a yacht, and ordered some of his own attendants to convey her, with all honour, to Whitehall, where she was received by Lord Arlington with all respect, and forthwith appointed maid-of-honour to the Queen. The intoxication of Charles was complete, and the man who had supported patiently the furious outbreaks of Barbara Palmer[10] and the saucy petulence of Nell Gwynne, was the more able to appreciate "les graces decentes" of the foreign maid-of-honour, who, in the profaned walls of Whitehall, diffused the delicate odour of Versailles. [10] Duchess of Cleveland.