Page:Catherine of Bragança, infanta of Portugal, & queen-consort of England.djvu/76

48 was to find one? and the names of several German princesses were suggested to him. He burst out impatiently, "Oddsfish! They are all dull and foggy! I cannot like any of them for a wife!" Some one named Princess Henrietta of Orange, but Charles at once cut across his speech, and declared with emphasis that "he had unanswerable objections to that marriage." It being seen that no Protestant wife offered herself whom he would consider, it was agreed without a dissenting voice that no Roman Catholic princess in Europe could offer such advantages as the Infanta of Portugal, whose portion in money was almost double what any king of England had ever received with a consort, and whose territorial appanages were places of great importance for the increase of trade, especially in the Indies and the Mediterranean, where much damage had been sustained by the commercial relations of England during the late trouble. It was to the advantage of the nation to consider the marriage, and Charles found it to his own advantage as well. He commanded "their lordships to open the matrimonial treaty with all possible secrecy."

Dom Francesco de Mello now offered to return to Portugal, and inform the King and the Queen-Regent of the state of affairs, "not doubting to return with full powers for the completion of the treaty." Charles sent by him a letter to Donna Luiza, and one to King Alphonzo declaring his desire for the marriage. He also wrote to Catherine, which even Portuguese decorum permitted, as she was his betrothed wife in fact, though not in form. Charles was such a charming writer of letters that we assume that his first love-letter to Catherine did not fall short. He put at the disposal of the ambassador two ships, to convey himself and family to Lisbon, thus acknowledging him an accredited envoy from England. The news he carried to Lisbon filled the Court and