loss more than any other which had previously fallen upon him.

Scarcely had he been laid to rest in the vault containing the
dust of Mary Queen of Scots and Lady Arabella Stuart, when the
Princess of Orange arrived in England to pay the king a visit of
ceremony. No sooner was she settled at court, than rumour of her
brother's marriage reached her; on which she became outrageous;
but her wrath was far exceeded by that of the queen mother, who,
on hearing the news, wrote to the duke expressing her indignation
"that he should have such low thoughts as to marry such a woman."
The epistle containing this sentence was at once shown by James
to his wife, whom he continually saw and spent much time with,
unknown to her father, who had given orders she should keep her
chamber. Parliament now sat, but no mention was made of the
duke's marriage by either House; and, inasmuch as the union so
nearly concerned the nation, this silence caused considerable
surprise. It was surmised the delay was made in deference to the
feelings of the queen mother, who at this juncture set out for
England, to prevent what she was pleased to term "so great a
stain and dishonour to the crown." The king regarded his
brother's alliance in a lenient spirit, and not only spoke of it
frequently before the court, but expressed his desire of bringing
the indiscretion to a, happy conclusion by a public
acknowledgment.

The queen mother, being an ambitious woman, had cherished certain
schemes for extending the power of her family by the respective
marriages of her sons, which the duke's union was, of course,
calculated to curtail. She therefore regarded his wife with the
bitterest disdain. Whenever that woman should be brought into