Madame de Chevreuse had for cavalier that handsome
coxcomb, Lord Holland, who was one of Buckingham's creatures,
between whom and herself a certain transient tenderness had
sprung up. M. de Putange was accompanied by Madame de Vernet,
with whom at the time he was over head and ears in love.
Elsewhere about the spacious gardens other courtiers sauntered.
Now either Madame de Chevreuse and M. de Putange were too deeply
engrossed in their respective companions, or else the state of
their own hearts and the tepid, languorous eventide disposed them
complacently towards the affair of gallantry upon which their
mistress almost seemed to wish to be embarked. They forgot, it
would seem, that she was a queen, and remembered sympathetically
that she was a woman, and that she had for companion the most
splendid cavalier in all the world. Thus they committed the
unpardonable fault of lagging behind, and allowing her to pass
out of their sight round the bend of an avenue by the water.
No sooner did Buckingham realize that he was alone with the
Queen, that the friendly dusk and a screen of trees secured them
from observation, than, piling audacity up on audacity, he
determined to accomplish here and now the conquest of this lovely
lady who had used him so graciously and received his advances
with such manifest pleasure.
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