Page:The Queens of England.djvu/540

 490 THE QUEENS OF EXGLAXD. place, and having a fine avenue leading from the back of the woods that surround it, to the wild and sandy sea coast of Scheveling. about three miles off. This might have been a very pleasant residence, under agreeable circumstances, but the life of Mary is thus described by the French ambassador there to his own court. "Until now. the existence of the Princess of Orange has been thus regulated : from the time she rose in the morning till eight in the evening she never left her chamber, except in the summer, when she was permitted to walk about once in seven or eight days. Xo one had liberty to enter her room, not even her lady of honor, nor her maids of honor, of which she had but four : but she had a troop of Dutch filles dc chambre, of whom a detachment must every day mount guard on her. and have orders never to leave her." This but too well agrees with the account of Dr. Cowell. Mary's chaplain, who says that "the prince had made her his absolute slave : that the English attendants dare not speak to her. and that he thought the princess' heart was like to break." As the time approached that Mary must in all probability be called to the English throne, the gloom and distance of William towards Mary grew more marked and intolerable. Mary was sunk in grief. But at length Burnet, afterwards the celebrated Bishop of Salisbury, made the discovery that the cause of Wil- liam's reserve and acerbity was his suspicion that Mary would not consent to his sharing with her the regal dignity which was her inheritance. On Mary being made acquainted with this, with her wonted generosity, she immediately dispatched Burnet to assure him that as far as lay in her power William should share to the utmost the equality of the throne. On this, Burnet tells us, that a great change appeared instantly in Wil- liam's conduct towards his wife. We fear, however, that the conduct of William towards her for the greater part of their abode in Holland cannot be made to appear greatly to his honor. He is accused of being far from correct in his behavior towards one of the Miss Yilliers, maids of honor to Mary, and yet to have kept them about her person : which, with his constant plot- tings for the usurpation of her father's throne, cannot be recon- ciled with that honor which we would fain recognize in the hero of the Revolution of 1688. The queen landed at Gravesend the 12th of February. 1688, and was received with great enthusiasm : orange blossoms being borne before her. and young damsels scattering flowers in her path. The contest with James the Second, her father, soon