Page:The Story of Nell Gwyn.djvu/149

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MARRIAGES AND PEERAGES.
133

a young and handsome adventurer about Whitehall. The girl was called Barbara, after her mother, and became a nun.

These events were varied in the following month by the marriage of the Duke of Grafton, the King's son by the Duchess of Cleveland, to the only child of the Earl and Countess of Arlington; by the birth of a first child to the Duke and Duchess of Monmouth; and by the widowhood in December of La Belle Stuart, the beautiful Duchess of Richmond. In the following year other occurrences took place in which Nelly was interested. On the 19th August, 1673, Mademoiselle de Quérouaille was created Duchess of Portsmouth, and in October following, Moll Davis, her former rival in the royal affections, was delivered of a daughter, called Mary Tudor, and acknowledged by the King. Following hard on these was the marriage of the Duke of York to his future queen; the introduction of the opera into England; the opening of the new theatre in Drury Lane; the marriage of the future Earl of Lichfield to Charlotta, another natural daughter of the King by the Duchess of Cleveland; the creation of Charles Fitzroy to be Duke of Southampton; the marriage of the Duchess of Portsmouth's sister to the Earl of Pembroke; Lord Buckhurst's elevation