Page:Catherine of Bragança, infanta of Portugal, & queen-consort of England.djvu/29

1640] Catherine's influence that turned the scale of her father's hesitation.

Catherine was by this time a pretty and engaging child of two years old. She was the pet and darling of her two elder brothers, and of her father and mother. She had been baptized at a tender age, in the ducal chapel of the palace of Villa Viçosa, on December 12, not three weeks after her birth, and her godfather was Dom Frances code Mello, the Marquez de Ferreira, a rich grandee of high rank, and a devoted friend and supporter of her father. The ceremony was performed by Antonio de Brito e Sousa, the dean of the chapel, and she was given the name of Catherine in honour of her patron saint, on whose day she was born. Now, as destiny would have it, it was on her second birth-day, November 25, 1640, that the nobles of Portugal, stung with the intolerable pricks of their slavery, sent their envoy Dom Caspar Coutigno secretly to Villa Viçosa to pray Catherine's father, in the name of the associated patriots, to accept their leadership and the throne of Portugal. As has just been said, Dom João hesitated. It was a cast of the dice on which he must stake all, and for a moment he deliberated. Then Catherine's mother, the high-spirited daughter of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, could not refrain herself any longer.

"My friend," she said, "if thou goest to Madrid thou runnest the hazard of losing thy head. If thou acceptest the throne thou runnest the same hazard. If thou must perish, better die nobly at home than basely abroad." The Duke was moved at her speech, but still he deliberated. He was amazingly happy in his lot. His was an ideal marriage, and his affectionate nature found enough joy in his wife and his children. He was lord of immense estates, which embraced quite a third of the whole kingdom. He was popular and beloved. He still kept silence.