“The charming Annabel,” whom Dryden names as the “bride” of the beautiful and graceful Absalom, of whom his father, Charles II., was so fond at that period of his life when only his brilliant qualities were conspicuous, and his fatal ambition slumbered,–the patroness of the great poet's “poor unworthy poetry,” as he says with affected humility,–was the Lady Anne Scott, only daughter of Francis, Earl of Buccleugh, the heiress of immense wealth, and of the infantine age of thirteen. At the time that her marriage was proposed with young Mr. Croft, as he was then called, her intended bridegroom was but a year older, and their union was for their mutual misfortune; for the gay, volatile, and admired Monmouth at once refused his bondage, and, with the example of his profligate father and his unprincipled courtiers before him, it was not likely that he would become a good and attentive husband. The tie which he felt too firmly bound his youth, he soon resolved to unloose, and as the mere name of wife was at that period considered sufficient to ensure neglect, the young and innocent bride was at once consigned to neglect and ill-usage, although, at the time of her marriage, it is recorded that “she was esteemed the greatest fortune and the finest lady in the three kingdoms.”