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FEW females have, in their time, attracted so large a portion of public notice as this celebrated lady, who was the daughter of Colonel Chudleigh, the descendant of an ancient family in the county of Devon. Her father dying while she was very young, the care of this, his only daughter, devolved on her mother, who had little more than the usual pension allotted to the widow of an officer for their mutual subsistence. Under these circumstances, Mrs. Chudleigh prudently availed herself of the best substitute for money good connexions. These, the rank, situation, and habits of her husband had placed within her power. She hired a house, fit, at that less refined period, for a fashionable town residence; and accommodated an inmate, for the purpose of adding to the scantiness of her income.

VOL. III.

Her daughter Elizabeth was soon distinguished for a brilliancy of repartee, and for other qualities highly recommendatory, because extremely pleasing. An opportunity offered for the display of them to every advantage. The father of King George III. had his court at Leicester House. Mr. Pulteney, who then blazed as a meteor in the opposition, was honored with the particular regard of the Prince of Wales. Miss Chudleigh was introduced to Mr. Pulteney, and he obtained for her, at the age of about eighteen, the appointment of maid of honour to the Princess of Wales; but he did more than thus place her in an elevated station; he endeavored to cultivate her understanding: to him Miss Chudleigh read; and with him, when separated by distance, actually corresponded.

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The station to which Miss Chudleigh was advanced, combined with many personal attractions, produced her a number of admirers; some with titles, and others in the expec tation of them. Among the former was the Duke of Hamilton, whom Miss Gunning had afterwards the good fortune to obtain for a consort. The duke was passionately fond of Miss Chudleigh, and pressed his suit with such ardour as to obtain solemn engagement, on her part, that on his return from a tour, for which he was preparing, she would become his wife, There were reasons why this event should not immediately take place; that the engagement would be fulfilled at the specified time both parties considered as a moral certainty. A mutual pledge was given and accepted; the duke commenced his proposed tour; and the parting condition was, that he should write by every opportunity, and Miss Chudleigh, of course, to answer his epistles. Thus the arrangement of Fortune seemed to have united a pair, who possibly might have experienced much happiness; for between the duke and Miss Chudleigh there was a similarity of disposition. Fate, how ever, had not destined them for each other.

Miss Chudleigh had an aunt, whose name was Hanmer: at her house the Hon. Mr. Hervey, son of the Earl of Bristol, and a captain in the royal navy, was a visitor. To this gentleman Mrs. Hanmer became so exceedingly partial, that she favored his views on her niece, and engaged her efforts to effect, if possible, a matrimonial connexion. There were two difficulties which would have been insurmountable, had they not heen opposed by the fertile genius of a female-Miss Chudleigh disliked Captain Hervey, and she was betrothed to the Duke of Hamilton.

To render this alliance nugatory, the letters of his grace were intercepted by Mrs. Hanmer; and, his supposed silence giving offence to her niece, she worked so successfully on her pride as to induce her to abandon all thoughts of her lover, whose passion she had cherished with delight. A conduct the reverse of that imputed to the duke was observed by Captain Hervey: he was all that assiduity could dictate, or attention perform. He had daily access to Miss Chudleigh, and each interview was artfully improved by the aunt to the promotion of her own views. The letters of his Grace of Hamilton, which regularly arrived, were as regularly sup pressed; until, piqued beyond endurance, Miss Chudleigh was prevailed on to accept the hand of Captain Hervey, and, by a private marriage, to ensure the participa tion of his future honours and fortune. The ceremony was performed in a private chapel adjoining the country mansion of Mr. Merrrill, at Lainston, near Winchester, in Hampshire.

On a review of life, the predominant evil experienced may be easily traced, by every reflecting mind, to some wilful error, or injudicious mistake, operating as a determinate cause, and giving the colour to our fate. This was the case with Miss Chudleigh; for the hour she became united with Captain Hervey proved to her the origin of every subsequent unhappiness. The connubial rites were attended with unhappy conse quences, and, from the night following the day on which the marriage was solemnized, Miss Chudleigh resolved never to have further counexion with her husband. To prevail on him not to claim her as his wife required all the art of which she was mistress; and the best dissuasive was the loss of her situation as

conversed, but corresponded, with her. In the Electress of Saxony she found a friend, whose affection *for her continued to the latest period of life. The electress was a woman of sense, honour, virtue, and religion. Her letters were replete with kindness: while her hand distributed presents to Miss Chudleigh out of the treasury of abuudance, her heart was interested for her happiness. This she afterwards evinced during her prosecution; for, at that time, a Jetter from the electress contained the following passage: You have long experienced my love; ny revenue, my protection, my every thing, you may command. Come then, my dear life, to an asylum of peace. Quit a country where, if you are bequeathed a cloak, some pretender may start up, and ruin you by law to prove it not your property. Let me have you at Dresden.'

On her return from the Continent Miss Chudleigh ran over the career of pleasure, enlivened the court circles, and each year became more ingratiated with the mistress whom -she served. She was the leader of fashion, played whist with Lord Chesterfield, and revelled with Lady Harrington and Miss Ashe. She was a constant visitant at all public places, and, in 1742, appeared at a masked ball in the character of Iphigenia.

Reflection, however, put off for the day, too frequently intruded an unwelcome visit at night. Captain Hervey, like a perturbed spirit, was eternally crossing the path trodden by his wife. If in the rooms at -Bath, he was sure to be there. At

a rout, ridotto, or ball, this destroyer of her peace imbittered every plea -sure, and even menaced her with an "Intimation that he would disclose the marriage to the princess. In this Miss Chudleigh anticipated him, by being the first relater of the

circumstance. Her royal mistress pitied her, and continued her paironage to the hour of her death.

At length a stratagem was either suggested, or it occurred to Miss Chudleigh, at once to deprive Captain Hervey of the power to claim her as his wife. The clergyman who had married them was dead. The register-book was in careless bands. A handsome compliment was paid for the inspection, and, while the person in whose custody it was listened to an amusing story, Miss Chudleigh tore out the regis ter. Thus imagining the business accomplished, she for a time bade defiance to her husband, whose taste for the softer sex subsiding, from some unaccountable cause, occasioned Miss Chudleigh a cessation of inquietude. Her better fate influenced in her favour the heart of a man who was the exemplar of amia. bility: this was the Duke of Kingston. Meanwhile Captain Hervey had succeeded to the earldom of Bristol. With rank he obtained fortune; and both were inviting objects to the mind of our heroine. When a succession to the family honours and revenue became highly probable, a short period before it took place Miss Chudleigh went to the house of Mr. Merrill, in whose chapel she was married. Her ostensible reason was a jaunt out of town; her real design was to procure, if possible, the insertion of her marriage with Captain Hervey in the book which, in order to destroy the written evidence of that marriage, she had formerly mutilated. With this view she dealt out promises with a liberal hand. The officiating clerk, who was a person of various avocations, was to be promoted to the extent of his wishes. The book was managed by the lady to her content, and she returned to London, secretly exulting in the excellence and success of

her machination. She did, it is true, succeed, but it was laying the groundwork of that very evidence which operated afterwards to her conviction.

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Such was the situation of Miss Chudleigh when the Duke of Kingston became her admirer. Re-married, as it were, by her own stratagem, the participation of ducal honours became legally impossible. The chains of wedlock, which the lady had been so industrious in shaking off or putting on, as seemed most suitable to her views, were How galling to an excess. Every advice was taken, but the means of liberation were beyond the power of human device. To acquiesce in that which could not be remedied seemed the only alternative. The Duke of Kingston's attachment was ardent, and truly sincere. He mingled the friend with the lover; nor was there an endearing title under heaven he would not have assumed, could but the assumption have really advanced the happiness of Miss Chudleigh. For a series of years they cohabited; yet with such observance of external decorum, that their intimacy was not an evidenced certainty.

The Earl of Bristol, by time and attachments, had grown so weary of the connubial state, as to be cordially desirous of a change. At first, when sounded on the subject of a divorce, he said her vanity should not be gratified by being a duchess. Afterwards, however, there being a lady to whom he wished to offer his hand, he so altered his tone, as to express a readiness to consent to any possible means of annihilating the union subsisting between him and Miss Chudleigh. The civilians were consulted, a jactitation suit was instituted, but the evidence that could prove the marriage was kept back. Lord Bristol failing, as it was de

signed he should fail, in substantiating the marriage, a sentence of the Court, pronouncing the nullity of the claim, concluded the busi ness. The object now to be obtained was, a legal opinion as to the operative power of such a sentence; and the civilians, highly tenacious of the rights of their own courts, adjudged the decree not liable to be disturbed by the interference of any extrinsic court of judicature. Under conviction of perfect safety, therefore, the mar. riage between his Grace of Kingston and Miss Chudleigh was publicly solemnized. The favours were worn by the highest personages in the kingdom; and, during the life of the duke, not any attempt was made to dispute the legality of the procedure. The fortune was not entailed; his grace had, therefore, the option to bequeath it as seemed best to his own inclination. The heirs since, were then expectants; the claims rested on hope, not certainty. The duchess figured without apprehension or control. She was raised to the pinnacle of her fortune, and for a very few years did she enjoy that which the chicanery of her life had been directed to accomplish, the parade of title, without that honour which integrity of character alone can ennoble.

At length she was checked in the career of enjoyment by the death of the Duke of Kingston. His will, excluding from every benefit an elder, and preferring a younger nephew as his heir in tail, gave rise to a prosecution of the duchess, which ended in the beggary of her prosecutor, and the exile of herself. The demise of the Duke of Kingston was not sudden or unexpected: being attacked with a paralytic affection, he lingered but a short time, and that time was employed by his consort in journeying his grace