The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-05-30
The Young Maid of Honor.


her grace, the Duchess of York, at st.
James palace in the great city of
London.
Many girls would have looked for
ward with pleasure and fond anticipa-
tons to life at court, but Margaret
Blagge had left her home in the old
Suffolkshire manor-house of Harring-
tonsheath with tears and with reluct-
ance. The child of excellent parents,
piously trained, she was discreet
and pensive for her age, and was
hardly of the character to be fascinated
by the brilliant but false allurements of
a court, and of such court as White
hall.
1t is hard to imagine the terrible cor
rupton that then reigned at the court
of Charles II. The king himself was
one of the most immoral of men. He
and his brother James had the dire
misfortune in their youth of being
driven, by the Puritan and fanatical
party in England, to take refuge with
Louis NV, and brought back with
them the dssolute manners of the
French court, which soon infected that
of England, and few there escaped the
moral pestience. 1t had spread, indeed,
through the whole nation, and the more
readily because men were wearied by
the cant and overstrained seventies of
Cromwell's rule. The worldiness and
wickedness of the royal circle were
rendered all the more dangerous by its
gaiety, sparkling wit and lavish splen
dor. There was no purity, no honor any
where. All the court ladies who were
not absolutely vicious were idle, igno-
rant and frivolous.
1t was indeed a perilous climate for
one so young, for Margaret had not at
tanned her thirteenth year. But as her
biographer says: " BY how much more
the danger, so much greater the virtue
and discretion which not only pre-
served her steady in that giddy station,
but so improved that the example of
this little saint influenced not only her
honorable companions, but some who
were advanced in years before her, and
of the most illustrious quality. She,
like young apostle, began to plant re-
ligion in that barren soyle."
Child as she was, the charms of her
person and manner and the rare mod
esty and propriety of her conduct won
the love and respect of every one with
WlOIll SllC was dScOCldlCus lSNCli lIoSO
who could see in religion nothing but
cant and hypocrisy were forced to con-
fess that in Margaret Blagge it wore an
aspect so lovely as TO disarm envy it.
self of its sting. She seems to have
possessed a peculiar sweetness and
buoyancy of disposition, and this, with
her excellent natural judgment and
her sparkling wit, were great helps in
the attainment of a certain popularity
and influence. Nor did she have any
of that sickly sentimentality which, be-
cause one coveted blessing is denied,
turns away disguised from those still
left. She always gave pleasant and
cheerful service, was attentive to all
her duties, and if at times there was
sorrow in her heart no fellow-creature
was ever informed of its existence.
At the end of three years the Duchess
of York died and Margaret, who had
attended her with all the devotion of a
child and of Christian, was at once
created one of the maids of honor to
Queen Catharine of Braganza. She
was now sixteen and possessed of
great beauty-a dangerous gift for a
young girl at Whitehall in the time of
the Stuarts. Often must she have been
tempted by the brilliancy and splendor
by the gallantry and elegance around
her, but she had secret source of
strength of which the world knew moth
ing. She appears to have truly read
the character of Charles H., for in hel
private diary there is the following
significant entry:
"When | 90 into the drawing-roon
let me remember what my calling i,
to serve my royal mistress and make
myself obliging to the ladies of hel
train, but never to enter into foolish
conversation with the other sex, and
above all, with the king"
Card-playing was one of the popular
amusements at court, both sexes in
dulging in the pastime with the great
est license. Margaret set her face
firmly against what she considered {
foolish amusement and sinful vast,
of time. She registered a resolution t.
abstain at any cost from card-playing
a resolution that she was able to faith
fully keep. WHAT she says, " shall
immortal beings lose money at card
and yet have nothing to give to tn
poor? Why, it's robbing God, mis-
spending time and misemploying m
talents, all three great sins.
The daily life of this pious youn
maid of honor, as recorded by Evelyn
should be a reproach to the idle, care
less lives of some of our modern girls
On Sunday, were it never so dark
and welt, she would be at the chapel q
the seven o'clock service, and on
communion day long before that houl
She generally received the holy con
munion on Sundays, and oh, with whf
care did she dress and trim her soul
for the heavenly banquet; and she ha
confessed to me that in receiving tn
holy symbols she felt in her soule sue
influXes of heavenly joy as have almo
carried her into another world.
" Nothing veXed her more than th
state visits on Sunday evenings, whic
she studiously avoided; and never faile
to visit, pray by or instruct SON
poore creature, though in distant par
of the town, and sometymes she woul
walk into the fields or gardens to COZ
template the works of God, and thel