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Show "VAMPS" WHO 1 MADE HISTORY By JAMES C. YOUNG. 8 ( by AlcClure Newspaper Syndicate.) "THE CURSE OF ENGLAND" A WOMAN. WHEN young Charles II of England Eng-land was a refugee In Holland, after his father had been executed, a stanch loyalist by the name of Roger Palmer came to him with a large sum of money and plans to gain the throne for Charles. Palmer had a nineteen-year-old wife, Barbara. At sixteen she had an intrigue with a famous rake and now threw herself directly In the path of Charles. On May 29, 16G0, the king returned In triumph to London by the efforts of Palmer and other loyalists. He found Barbara awaiting him and hurried through the day's ceremonies that he might join her. Palmer was so strong a loyalist that he surrendered his wife to Charles, and In reward was made duke of Cleveland. Barbara developed an Insatiable passion for wealth and gambling. She was not even true to the king; but he, a lazy cynic, looked on good-naturedly. Her control over him and wild extravagance extrav-agance gained her the lurid title ''The Curse of England." It was she who founded the fortune of the ducal house of Marlborough, giving the first duke, then a poor nobody, his start in life. She bought him a place in the army, where he afterward rose to be that famous duke of Marlborough who won for England such notable victories. j Historians of the day say that Barbara Bar-bara often lost as much as $100,000 in a single evening's play, a fabulous sum for that time. Barbara was one of the most beautiful beauti-ful women of her time, with regal carriage car-riage and seemingly perpetual youth. She ruled the Indolent Charles at will, dictating policies of state, making cr ruining fortunes as her fancy chose. ' She made powerful enemies, but as long as her control endured over Charles she cared little for the opinion of others. It became dangerous for her to go about the streets of London, so great was the hatred against her, and she adopted a royal style, traveling travel-ing with mounted bodyguard. But the fickle Charles at last tired of her and she saw his attention turned to other women. One by one she outwitted out-witted them until France sent over Louise de la Querouaille, a pretty little vampire, with Instructions to sway Charles in negotiations between the two kingdoms. And Barbara lost her tilt with Louise. t |