Unfortunately, instead of allowing time to soothe her sorrows, she began to drown them in a manner which showed a disregard of her sex and position. To escape the torrent of torment, she resolved to travel; but unwilling to go alone, was indiscreet enough to advertise in the newspapers for a companion. She succeeded, and off they started; but, as might have been expected, were soon tired of each other, and separated at Berlin. Here she was introduced to the great Frederick, who treated her with great distinction. Returning home, she plunged into all the dissipation which then characterised society in the metropolis; but again her husband crossed her path and seemed determined to claim her, and finding remonstrance useless, she resorted to the dishonest stratagem of tearing out the leaf bearing the register of her marriage. Her husband had now no power to prove their union, as the clergyman who performed the ceremony was dead. This step she soon regretted; for Captain Hervey, succeeding to the Earldom of Bristol, by his father’s death, her vanity made the rank of Countess very acceptable, and through the clerk she succeeded in replacing in the register-book the leaf she had abstracted. Such was her position when the Duke of Kingston offered her his hand. Of course such was impossible; and accordingly they lived together for several years, but with such observance of external decorum, that though a moral, it was not an evidenced certainty. Her husband, on negotiations being opened, refused to gratify her with the title of Duchess; but a separation afterwards suiting his own wishes, he agreed not to oppose her application for a divorce, and the necessary proofs being withheld, it was granted. She now attained her wishes, and was married to the Duke March 8th, 1769. While the Duke lived, the legality of the marriage was not questioned; but he died September 24th, 1773, and left her his whole fortune, on condition she did not marry again—a restraint she was by no means inclined to abide by. She, however, set out for Rome, where Ganganelli gave her apartments in the palace of one of his cardinals, and otherwise showed her distinction. Here, however, her gaiety was soon stopped by news of a disagreeable nature from home. A Mrs. Cradock had been present as a domestic at her marriage with Lord Bristol, and, being in reduced circumstances, applied to the Duchess’s solicitor for relief; he, discrediting her tale, refused any, on which she went to Mr. Evelyn Pierrepoint, nephew of the Duke, and informed him of every particular. He thereupon preferred an indictment for bigamy against the Duchess, of which being informed, she, after surmounting various obstacles, landed at Dover, and was immediately bailed before Lord Mansfield, preparatory to taking her trial.