[150] Grammont says of Monmouth in his _Mémoires:_ “His face and the graces of his person were such that Nature has perhaps never formed any more accomplished. His countenance was perfectly charming. It was the face of a man; nothing insipid, nothing effeminate about it. Every feature had its attraction and its especial delicacy. A marvellous inclination for all kinds of exercises, an engaging manner, an air of grandeur--in short, all bodily advantages pleaded in his favour; but he had no sentiment except such as was inspired by others.” [151] Letter from Monmouth to James, dated from Ringwode, quoted by Macaulay, _Histoire d’Angleterre depuis l’Avénement de Jacques II._, translation of M. de Peyronnet, vol. i. p. 398. [152] Lady Henrietta Wentworth.--_Trans._ [153] Burnet, vol. i. p. 630. [154] M. Topin’s narrative has been here condensed, as it was hardly necessary to repeat to English readers the well-known story of Monmouth’s futile enterprise, more especially as it has no kind of bearing on the point as to whether he was or was not the Man with the Iron Mask.--_Trans._ [155] _Original Letters_ of Sir H. Ellis; Newspapers of the period; Despatch of the French Ambassador Barillon, July 13, 1685. [156] Letter of James II. to the Prince of Orange, July 14, 1685; _Sir J. Bramston’s Memoirs_, related by Macaulay; Burnet, vol. i. p. 644. CHAPTER VIII. Bases on which Saint-Foix has founded his Theory--Disputes of Saint-Foix and Father Griffet--The Recollection of Monmouth becomes Legendary in England--Ballads announcing his Return--Indisputable Proofs of Monmouth’s Death in 1685--Interview of Monmouth with his Wife and Children--He is conducted to the Scaffold--His Firmness--The Last Words which he utters--Awkwardness of the Executioner. In an anonymous libel, published in Holland under the title of _Amours de Charles II. et de Jacques II., Rois d’Angleterre_, we read “that in 1688, a few days after the departure from London of King James II., overthrown by William of Orange, Earl Danby sent to seek Colonel Skelton, who had formerly been Lieutenant of the Tower, which post the Prince of Orange had taken away from him, in order to give it to Lord Lucas. ‘Mr. Skelton,’ said Earl Danby to him, ‘yesterday, when supping with Robert Johnston, you told him that the Duke of Monmouth was alive, and that he was imprisoned in some castle in England.’ ‘I have not said that he was alive, and imprisoned in any castle, since I know nothing about it,’ answered Skelton; ‘but I have said that the night after the Duke of Monmouth’s pretended execution, the King, accompanied by three men, came to remove him from the Tower; that they covered his head with a kind of hood, and that the King and the three men entered a carriage with him.’”[157]