The only one of Mrs. Haywood's scandal novels that rivaled the fame of her "Memoirs of a Certain Island" was the notorious "Secret History of the Present Intrigues of the Court of Carimania" (1727), a feigned history on a more coherent plan than the allegorical hodge-podge of the former compilation. The incidents in this book are all loosely connected with the amours of Theodore, Prince of Carimania, with various beauties of this court. The chronicle minutely records the means he employed to overcome their scruples, to stifle their jealousies and their reproaches, and finally to extricate himself from affairs of gallantry grown tedious. Nearly all the changes are rung on the theme of amorous adventure in describing the progress of the royal rake and his associates. The "key"[23] at the end identifies the characters with various noble personages at the court of George II when Prince of Wales. The melting Lutetia, for instance, represented "Mrs. Baladin" or more accurately Mary Bellenden, maid of honor to the Princess, to whose charms Prince George was in fact not insensible. Barsina and Arilla were also maids of honor: the former became the second wife of John, Duke of Argyle (Aridanor), while the latter was that sister of Sir Sidney Meadows celebrated by Pope for her prudence. Although the "key" discreetly refrained from identifying the amorous Theodore, no great penetration was necessary to see in his character a picture of the royal George himself. A tradition not well authenticated but extremely probable states that printer and publisher were taken up in consequence of this daring scandal. But more important in its effect upon the author's fortunes than any action of the outraged government was the resentment which her defamation of certain illustrious persons awakened in the breast of the dictator of letters. In chosing [Transcriber's note: sic] to expose in the character of her chief heroine, Ismonda, the foibles of Mrs. Henrietta Howard, the neighbor of Pope, the friend of Swift and Arbuthnot, and the admired of Lord Peterborough, Mrs. Haywood made herself offensive in the nostrils of the literary trio. The King's mistress, later the Countess of Suffolk, conducted herself with such propriety that her friends affected to believe that her relations with her royal lover were purely platonic, and they naturally failed to welcome the chronicle of her amours and the revelation of the slights which George II delighted to inflict upon her. Swift described the writer of the scandal as a "stupid, infamous, scribbling woman";[24] Peterborough writing to Lady Mary Montagu in behalf of his friend, the English Homer, sneered at the "four remarkable poetesses and scribblers, Mrs. Centlivre, Mrs. Haywood, Mrs. Manley, and Mrs. Ben [_sic_]";[25] and Pope himself pilloried the offender to all time in his greatest satire. FOOTNOTES [1] _Monthly Review_, I, 238. July, 1749.