brother, the king, to remember the last words of his dead father, and be constant to his religion, resisted every attempt to force him to continue in the Jesuits' College, though the bishopric of Metz and other ecclesiastical dignities were guaranteed to him. So violent was the domestic persecution of the duke by his mother, that the Marquis of Ormond was despatched to demand, on the part of the king, that his brother should repair to his presence; and, indeed, conducted his mission with the greatest delicacy; yet the queen, in her exasperation at his withdrawal, refused to see her son when he offered to take leave of her, and threw his letter into the fire in the messenger's sight. For nearly two years a coolness was thus occasioned between herself and her children, until these minor evils were forgotten in the auspicious restoration of their former greatness, after the death of Cromwell. Still, the queen, so long the victim of misfortune, was not permitted personally to enjoy this season of reviving glory, in consequence of a nuptial contract between her daughter Henrietta and the Duke of Orleans. And even her subsequent visit to England was clouded by the intelligence of the death of the Duke of Gloucester, and the scarcely less affecting tidings of the Duke of York's intended marriage with the daughter of Lord Clarendon, who had been represented to her and the Princess of Orange as totally unworthy of James's affection. The wily chancellor, however, ultimately overcame the queen's dislike; for, while he professed himself so shocked, "if the union had taken place, as to desire the woman to be sent to the Tower," he practised on the queen-mother by engaging, that if she would relax her opposition, to get parliament to pay her debts. Henrietta's return to Whitehall, whither she was conducted by the former route, with even more magnificence than upon her bridal entry, caused a paroxysm of long-silenced grief. The spectacle of her emotion at the reviewal of scenes associated with all the agonies of her life was, indeed, great and terrible. And, after the death of the widowed Princess of Orange, in London, anxious to secure her surviving daughter from the virulence of the small-póx, which had proved so fatal to her family, she left this country, the scene of early tribulation and the anxieties of age, and only once in her subsequent life revisited it for a brief interval. The château of Colombe, about four leagues from Paris, afforded a refuge for the few remaining years of existence to this tried vessel, broken by the storms of state; and the year 1669 witnessed the same inflexible courage and patience, under long indisposition, which had supported her amidst such frequent and appalling trials. At the first increase of alarming symptoms, the repeated solicitation of those around alone induced her to allow a consultation of physicians, who pronounced her case not dangerous, though painful; but when M. Valot recommended the use of opium, the queen expressed a violent antipathy to the remedy which in previous years she had learned from Dr. Mayerne was inimical to her constitution. Her objection was fatally overruled, and in other respects some ignorance and want of skill appear to have been exhibited in the treatment of the supposed disorder, which evinced features nearly allied to those of decline. A continued stupor beyond the expected interval of repose alarmed her attendant, who summoned the physicians, but even then it was some time before the fatal truth could be perceived in the reluctance of affection to acknowledge it. Henrietta expired August 31, 1669, at the age of sixty years; her remains being removed to Chaillot, were, after lying in state, conducted at night, with all the sepulchral magnificence of departed majesty, to the Abbey of St. Denis, and her heart enclosed in a vessel of silver, with the following inscription in Latin, was deposited in the chapel of the convent : HENRIETTA MARIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND; WIFE OF CHARLES I., THE MARTYR; MOTHER OF CHARLES II., THE RESTORER. CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA. VERY few of our English queens have equal claims on the sympathy of posterity with Catherine of Braganza, consort of Charles the Second, who, from the gloomy walls of a monastery in which her youth had been passed, was suddenly called forth to become the ruling star of the licentious court of her husband, one of the most dissolute princes in Europe. Wholly ignorant of society, and of the customs of the country to which she was transplanted, Catherine, who at the time of her marriage was in her twenty-fifth year, was, although adorned with most of the virtues and amiable traits of character which become a woman and a queen, through an unfortunate combination of circumstances, reduced to the humiliating situation of a cypher in her own court. Amid all the revelry and pageantry that surrounded the Merry Monarch, Catherine passed a joyless existence, blessed neither with the honours of the wife, the mother, nor the queen. Yet in reality she was far more to be envied for her simplicity and goodness of heart, which seemed to bid defiance to the frowns of fortune, than were many of those haughty and worthless dames, by whose presence she was destined to be insulted, and by whom she was deprived of the affections of her fickle consort. Charles, however, to Catherine's praise be it said, seems from first to last to have entertained some appreciation of the excellence of his neglected and ill-used wife. The circumstances which led to their union are not devoid of interest, although they exhibit the selfish views of the king in a manner little creditable to his character either as a gentleman or a royal lover. The parents of this princess were the celebrated John, Duke of Braganza, who by a patriotic and bloodless revolution had been elevated to the throne of Portugal, A. D. 1641, and Louisa de Guzman, the daughter of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who after her husband's death presided as regent for her son during his minority, and who, by her beauty, talents, and prudence preserved the kingdom from Spain. She was Catherine was their third child and only daughter. born Nov. 25th, 1638, two years before her father mounted the throne of Portugal, and proceeded to achieve its independence. When Catherine had just completed her seventh year, her father proposed an alliance between her and the young Prince of Wales; but Charles the First did not respond to the proposition. Seventeen years afterwards, when Catherine was two-and-twenty, and Charles the Second had regained the throne of England, the same proposal was renewed. By her mother's instructions, Don Francisco de Melo, the ambassador to the English court, was ordered to propose the hand of the princess to Charles, who was informed, through the medium of the Earl of Manchester, his Lord Chamberlain, that 500,000l. sterling would be given as her dower, together with the fortress of Tangiers in Africa, the Island of Bombay, and free trade for the English to the Brazils. The faith of Catherine, who had been brought up a Catholic, presented indeed an obstacle to the alliance; but it was suggested that, as she was ignorant alike of business and politics, she would be content with enjoying her own views, without interfering with those of others, her temper being naturally gentle and submissive. The marriage, which was discussed in Council, was warmly seconded by Lord Clarendon ;1 and meeting no opposition, Charles, tempted by the golden bribe of the dowry, deputed the Portuguese ambassador to return with an account of his favourable reception to his own country, and to obtain a ratification of the treaty; that treaty which has ever since bound the two crowns of England and Portugal in a strict alliance. Don Francisco de Melo had been also the bearer of a letter in Charles's own hand, in which he addressed the Infanta as his wife. Notwithstanding, the match was nearly broken off by the interest of the Earl of Bristol, then high in Charles's favour, and who was supported by Don Louis de Haro, then ambassador from Spain in the English court, whose influence was exerted in behalf of Spain, then opposed to Portugal. This nobleman presented to the mind of the fickle monarch such a contrast between the plainness of the Infanta and the beauty of some of the Italian princesses, that Charles began to grow indifferent on the subject of the proposed alliance; and when the ambassador returned from Lisbon he was so coolly received, that 1 Some indeed think this statesman first suggested the match, and it is certain that the QueenMother, Henrietta Maria, desired it might take place because the Princess was a catholic. chagrin caused him to take to his bed from real or pretended illness. A new crisis relieved him from his embarrassment by the turn which affairs took, owing to Bristol's levity and the audacity of his Spanish ally, De Haro, whom Charles ordered to quit the kingdom at a few days' notice. The Chancellor and Council at this favourable juncture persuaded Charles that he could not in honour retract from his engagement with Catherine, which Bastido, the French envoy, confirmed; and a portrait of the young princess herself, brought over by her ambassador, decided the point. The king, on beholding the delicate and soft features there portrayed, with the clear olive complexion and fine dark eyes, which gave expression to a face which could not perhaps be considered actually beautiful, immediately exclaimed, "That person could not be unhandsome," and decided the matter. Lord Sandwich was accordingly commissioned with a fleet to conclude the treaty, and to fetch over his bride to England. He was at the same time instructed to take possession of Tangiers. Further disappointments, however, were yet to be encountered. Louisa de Guzman, the queen-mother, by the sale of her jewels, and rich plate obtained from the monasteries, had provided the sum arranged to be given as her daughter's dower, but was afterwards compelled to use it to raise forces against Spain; so that when Lord Sandwich arrived she was unable to furnish the money. In this awkward dilemma she offered to place on board Charles's fleet the amount of half the sum in jewels, sugar, cotton, silk, and other commodities, and promised that the remainder should be paid within a year. Lord Sandwich had no alternative but acquiescence; but the weight of this untoward circumstance afterwards fell with full force upon Catherine. Charles's disappointment and chagrin at the arrival of a bride whom he had looked forward to as worth her weight in gold, unaccompanied by the expected dower, may very easily be conceived. These were not the only mortifications which attended the marriage of Catherine. Spain, having at that time great influence with the Papal Court, while the title of the House of Braganza in Spain was still unacknowledged, it was deemed advisable to postpone applying for the necessary dispensation to the Pope until after Catherine's arrival in England, for it would have been too great an indignity to submit to the title which such a dispensation would have awarded to Catherine, not of sister of the King of Portugal, but merely of sister and daughter of the Duke of Braganza. To avoid this, Catherine was compelled to waive the honours usually awarded to princesses under |