Page:The Queens of England.djvu/539

MARY THE SECOND. 489 children was removed from under their .father's control, and they were still educated in the Protestant faith. In the sixteenth year of Mary's age, she bestowed her hand upon William Henry of Nassau, the Prince of Orange, from which period she continued to reside with her husband in Hol- land, until February 12th, 1689, when, her husband having won from her father the throne of England, she came over, and was solemnly proclaimed queen. To this match Mary was originally extremely averse. In fact, as is generally the fate of princesses, her inclination was very little consulted in the various projects entertained for her marriage. In her fifteenth year her father wished to ally her to the Dauphin of France, but Charles the Second, and his council, destined her for William of Orange, her cousin. If we consider the description given -of William on his visit to London in the winter of 1670, which he spent there, being then nineteen years of age, we shall not wonder that Mary was not greatly taken with him. He was a constant suf- ferer from ill-health, laboring with asthma, small and weak of frame, and rather deformed. He was, notwithstanding this, always thinking of war and military exercises. Mary, on the contrary, was a young girl of distinguished beauty, and passion- ately fond of poetry. William made matters worse afterwards by actually refusing Mary when offered to him by Charles and her father, saying, insultingly, "that he was not in a condition to think of a wife." When, therefore, many circumstances had concurred to induce William seriously to wish for a marriage with Mary, not the least of which was her increasing prospect of one day wearing the crown of England, it is no wonder that Mary on her part should have been additionally averse to the match. From the evidence of contemporaries it is quite certain that she was very wretched at the time of her marriage, and for a long while afterwards. Scarcely had the marriage taken place when a brother was born, which cut off her direct prospect to the throne. William appeared much chagrined at the circum- stance, and could not avoid showing it. Mary's tutor, Dr. Lake, reports that the court noticed with indignation William's sullen- ness and clownishness, and his neglect of the princess. They spoke of him as "the Dutch Monster," and as Caliban, a name which the Princess Anne never forgot. The life of Mary at the Hague appears from various accounts to have been one of much restraint and dullness. She inhabited the beautiful house in the vicinity of the Hague, called "the Palace in the Wood," well known to English tourists ; a sweet