[***]
Mary, whose age, condition, and education, invited her to liberty and
cheerfulness, was curbed in all amusements by the absurd severity of
these reformers; and she found every moment reason to regret her leaving
that country, from whose manners she had in her early youth received
the first impressions.[****] Her two uncles, the duke of Aumale and the
grand prior, with the other French nobility, soon took leave of her: the
marquis of Elbeuf remained some time longer; but after his departure,
she was left to the society of her own subjects; men unacquainted
with the pleasures of conversation, ignorant of arts and civility, and
corrupted, beyond their usual rusticity, by a dismal fanaticism, which
rendered them incapable of all humanity or improvement. Though Mary
had made no attempt to restore the ancient religion, her Popery was a
sufficient crime: though her behavior was hitherto irreproachable, and
her manners sweet and engaging, her gayety and ease were interpreted as
signs of dissolute vanity.
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