Page:The Queens of England.djvu/518

 468 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. 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 his 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 auspi- cious 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 his daughter Hen- rietta 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 tid- ings of the Duke of York's intended marriage with the daugh- ter of Lord Clarendon, who had been represented to her and the Princess of Orange as totally unworthy of James' affec- tion. 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 zvoman to be sent to the Tower," he practiced 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 magnifi- cence 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 wid- owed Princess of Orange in London, anxious to secure her surviving daughter from the virulence of the smallpox, which had proved so fatal to her family, she left this country, the scene of early tribulation and the anxieties of age, and onlv once in her subsequent life revisited it for a brief interval. The chateau 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 fre- quent 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 pro- nounced her case not dangerous, though painful ; but when M. Valot recommended the use of opium the queen expressed