Page:The Queens of England.djvu/534

 484 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. valor which he had displayed with Turenne in the Protestant cause of old, the dangers which he had fearlessly incurred more recently in battle with the Dutch, while admiral of the English fleet, all were being fast obliterated by the obstinate bigotry with which, as heir apparent, he persisted in defying the re- ligious opinions of the House of Commons and of the country. The troubles which he drew down upon himself, upon his second consort, and her posterity, were beginning to be fomented al- most with his marriage. Five years, however, from the date of her marriage are spoken of by Mary d'Este as the happiest of her life, notwithstanding the death almost at their birth of two or three of her first children. She became deeply attached to her husband»despite some infidelities on his part; she soon, also, learnt the English language and became a patroness of literature and authors. The duke's banishment to Flanders was scarcely an interruption to this dream, because she accompanied him, and when he obtained leave from Charles the Second, a lit- tle later, to transfer his residence to Scotland, she again followed his fortunes. It was in November, 1679, that the Duke and Duchess of York took up their quarters at Hohyrood House, where they became exceedingly popular, and remained, with the exception of two or three visits to London, until they were called to the throne. It was while she held her court in Scot- land that a grave accident occurred to Mary of Modena. She was thrown from her horse, dragged some distance and received several kicks from the animal before she could be extricated. She was at first thought dead, but fortunately had met with no dangerous wounds. On her recovery she again took equestrian exercise, which, however, the united entreaties of her husband and mother persuaded her to discontinue. The duchess was again enceinte in 1684, and the duke being more popular just then in England, the king desired that the child should be born at St. James'. It was on the return of James by sea for the purpose of conducting his duchess to London, that he encountered that terrible shipwreck in the "Gloucester," in which many perished. Notwithstanding the terrors of her ladies. Mary Beatrice went by water immediately afterwards to London, and was, early in 1685, present at the death-bed of the king, her brother-in-law, for whom her grief was excessive. The first act of Queen Mary d'Este on ascending the British throne was somewhat arbitrary. It concerned not the subjects of these realms, but her own brother, from whom she had parted