at home to the exhausting affairs which made up his life abroad. For
years he had never enjoyed social converse, except at long intervals,
with man or woman; it was natural, therefore, that he should contract
this marriage. It was equally natural that he should make many enemies
by so impolitic a match. The Elector Palatine, who was in place of
guardian to the bride, decidedly disapproved, although he was suspected
of favoring the alliance. The Landgrave of Hesse for a time was furious;
the Elector of Saxony absolutely delirious with rage. The Diet of the
Empire was to be held within a few weeks at Frankfort, where it was very
certain that the outraged and influential Elector would make his
appearance, overflowing with anger, and determined to revenge upon the
cause of the Netherland Reformation the injury which he had personally
received. Even the wise, considerate, affectionate brother, John of
Nassau, considered the marriage an act of madness. He did what he could,
by argument and entreaty, to dissuade the Prince from its completion;
although he afterwards voluntarily confessed that the Princess Charlotte
had been deeply calumniated, and was an inestimable treasure to his
brother. The French government made use of the circumstance to justify
itself in a still further alienation from the cause of the Prince than it
had hitherto manifested, but this was rather pretence than reality.

It was not in the nature of things, however, that the Saxon and Hessian
indignation could be easily allayed. The Landgrave was extremely
violent. "Truly, I cannot imagine," he wrote to the Elector of Saxony,
"quo consilio that wiseacre of an Aldegonde, and whosoever else has been
aiding and abetting, have undertaken this affair. Nam si pietatem
respicias, it is to be feared that, considering she is a Frenchwoman, a
nun, and moreover a fugitive nun, about whose chastity there has been
considerable question, the Prince has got out of the frying-pan into the
fire. Si formam it is not to be supposed that it was her beauty which