A lady of distinguished character having been lampooned by some
obscure scribbler, who could not be discovered, the ministry, in
consequence of her complaint, ordered no fewer than five-and-twenty
abbes to be apprehended and sent to the Bastille, on the maxim of
Herod, when he commanded the innocents to be murdered, hoping that
the principal object of his cruelty would not escape in the general
calamity; and the friends of those unhappy prisoners durst not even
complain of the unjust persecution, but shrugged up their shoulders,
and in silence deplored their misfortune, uncertain whether or not
they should ever set eyes on them again.
About the same time a gentleman of family, who had been oppressed
by a certain powerful duke that lived in the neighbourhood, found
means to be introduced to the king, who, receiving his petition
very graciously, asked in what regiment he served; and when
the memorialist answered that he had not the honour of being in
the service, returned the paper unopened, and refused to hear one
circumstance of his complaint; so that, far from being redressed,
he remained more than ever exposed to the tyranny of his oppressors;
nay, so notorious is the discouragement of all those who presume
to live independent of court favour and connections that one of the
gentlemen, whose friendship Peregrine cultivated, frankly owned he
was in possession of a most romantic place in one of the provinces,
and deeply enamoured of a country life; and yet he durst not reside
upon his own estate, lest, by slackening in his attendance upon
the great, who honoured him with their protection, he should fall
a prey to some rapacious intendant.
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