Among the queen's maids-of-honour, and by no
means the prettiest or the prudest, was Miss Price, who,
says Mrs. Jameson,^ had ** forfeited all claims to the
title, if not to the office, of a maid of honour ". She

^ Beauties of the Court of Charles II., p. 64.
AND OTHER LITERARY RAKES 145

was a frolicsome, foolish, mischievous and laughter-
loving minx, and as ardent and as extreme in her
hatreds as in her affections. At one time the special
object of her hatred was a pretty young girl with
whom Rochester happened to be on a footing of
extreme intimacy : and this fact Miss Price was
imprudent enough to publish to the world, an im-
prudence for which she was severely punished.
In Rochester, says Grammont, she "drew upon
herself the most dangerous enemy in the universe :
and never did any man write with more ease,
humour, spirit and delicacy," — the delicacy the
present writer has failed to observe : but no matter !
''He was at the same time the most severe satirist.
Poor Miss Price, who had thus involuntarily pro-
voked his resentment, was daily exposed in some
new shape ; there was every day some new song or
other, the subject of which was her conduct and
the burden her name. How was it possible for
her to bear up against these attacks, in a Court
where every person was eager to obtain the most
insignificant trifle that came from the pen of Lord
Rochester ? "

One of these " insignificant trifles," in the shape
of a most virulent lampoon upon the unhappy Miss
Price, was destined to do further mischief and bring
sorrow upon a more beautiful and a much more
innocent victim.
