now holds the best security for the continued loyalty of the people of Canada, in their increasing prosperity. To Great Britain they are bound by the strongest ties of duty and interest; and nothing but the basest ingratitude or absolute infatuation can ever tempt them to transfer their allegiance to another country. I shall conclude this chapter with a few verses written two years ago, and which were suggested by an indignant feeling at the cold manner with which the National Anthem was received by some persons who used to be loud in their professions of loyalty on former public occasions. Happily, this wayward and pettish, I will not call it disloyal spirit, has passed away, and most of the " Annexationists" are now heartily ashamed of their conduct. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. GOD save the Queen! The time has been Has echoed back-" God save the Queen!" It was not like the feeble cry That slaves might raise as tyrants pass'd, God save the Queen! Nor were these shouts without the will, And makes the poor man poorer still! No! It was like the thrilling shout- When Britain's foes are put to rout- For 'mid those sounds, to Britons dear, Such sounds as these in days of yore, When warriors' blood shall flow no more, God save the Queen! let patriots cry; Let shouts of freemen rend the sky, God save the Queen!—and Liberty! PRINCESS ORSINI. THE widow of the Duke of Bracciano, Flavius Orsini, commonly known as Princess Ursini or Des Ursins, was one of the most remarkable women of the period of transition from the 17th to the 18th centuries, and presents one of the most instructive specimens of the influence of an accomplished, intelligent, and able woman, in the affairs of courts and states. Anna Maria de la Tremouille was the daughter of Louis de la Tremouille, Duke of Noirmontier (born 25th December, 1612, died 12th October, 1666), who obtained his ducal crown as the reward of his military prowess, and of Renata Julie Aubery (married, November, 1640, died, 20th March, 1679). The date of her birth has never been exactly ascertained. We only know that it occurred between those of her two brothers, and that her elder brother, Louis Alexander, was born in the year 1642, and her younger brother, the Cardinal de la Tremouille, in the year 1652, but that her first marriage did not occur till 1659. Her sister, Aloisa Angelica, married Anthony Lanti, Prince of Belmar, at Rome, and was commonly called the Duchess of Lanti. Anna Maria married, in the first instance, Adrian Blasius de Talleyrand, Prince of Chalois, whom she lost in 1670. He was forced to fly from France in consequence of being implicated in the Le Fort duel, and went to Spain, on which occasion his wife first became acquainted with a country in which she was afterwards to play such an important part. They passed afterwards into Italy, and whilst the Prince sought refuge in the Venetian territory, his lady went to Rome to seek refuge under the protection of the two Roman Cardinals Bouillon and d'Estrées. Her husband died shortly after, in such straitened circumstances, that she was left dependent on the bounty of her protectors. The latter negotiated, in 1675, a marriage between the young widow and Flavius dei Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, Prince of Vicovaro, Grandee of Spain, and Roman Baron, who had been a widower since 1674. This marriage does not appear to have been happy, having entailed such heavy expenses upon the Duke, through his connection with his wife's relations, that he had to dispose of all his properties successively, and lived in a state of constant discord with his wife. She seems indeed to have frequently sought refuge in France, in order to escape his invectives, and on one occasion she remained separated from him for the space of five years. It was at this time that her former acquaintance with Madame de Maintenon was renewed and ripened into intimacy, which gave her henceforth great influence at the French Court. She reconciled Cardinal Portocarrero, at whose house she had habitually sought an asylum in her domestic troubles, with her husband, in 1695, whereupon she returned to Rome, and remained with the Duke till his death, which occurred on the 5th April, 1698, in the 66th year of his age. His remaining possessions were confiscated by the Papal Camera. A furnished palace at Rome, James Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby, married, about the year 1637, Charlotte, daughter of Claud, Duke of Tremouille, &c., and of Lady Charlotte his wife, daughter of William Prince of Orange. This lady figured conspicuously in English history as the gallant defender or Latham House, in the Civil War. See "History of the House of Stanley," Preston 1793, 8vo.; and pp. 181-3, of Sir Egerton Brydges' "Peers of England during the Reign of James the First." and a moderate income, were all that accrued to his widow, who now assumed the name of Orsini, because the nephew of Pope Innocent the Twelfth, who had bought the deceased Duke's property of Bracciano, wished to appropriate the title to himself. When Philip the Fifth, the young King of Spain, had signified his intention of forming an alliance with a Princess of Savoy, the clever Frenchwoman seized with avidity the thought of obtaining an influential position at the Court of Madrid. She applied to Madame de Maintenon, as well as to her intimate confidant and relation, Madame de Noailles, and represented in a favourite light her advantages as widow of a Spanish grandee, her friendship with Cardinal Portocarrero, and her familiarity with the language and customs of the Spaniards; but she confined herself to the modest request of being allowed to accompany the young Queen to Madrid, and to remain there as long as it pleased the King. Portocarrero also used his influence in her favour. The French Court determined to confide to her the important post of a camerera mayor* of the young Queen, and she speedily received (1701) an official tender of this appointment through the Spanish Ambassador at Rome, the Duke of Uceda. We need scarcely add that she accompanied her new mistress in the galley that conveyed her to Spain. St. Simon gives the following picture of our heroine :-" She was above the middle height, a brunette in complexion, with expressive blue eyes, and her countenance was uncommonly attractive, without having any pretensions to beauty. She had a beautiful figure, a stately and dignified bearing, in which, however, there was more of the attractive than of the imperious; and she knew so well how to couple an unspeakable charm with the merest trifles, that I have never known her equal in form or in character. Flattering, engaging, and discreet, anxious to please, for the sake of pleasing, and irresistible when she wished to convince or to reconcile; she possessed an agreeable tone of voice, a captivating address, and an inexhaustible fund of entertainment, which she enlivened with relations of the different countries that she had visited, and with anecdotes of the remarkable persons whom she had known or met. She was used to the best society, extremely polite and condescending to all, but especially fascinating to those whom she wished to distinguish, and equally dexterous in calling forth their peculiar charms and gifts. She seemed created expressly for the atmosphere of Courts, and she was thoroughly initiated into all the intrigues of Cabinets, owing to her long residence at Rome. She was vain of her person, and was gratified when she was admired, a weakness that always clung to her, on which account she dressed too young for her age in later life, and sometimes even ludicrously. She possessed a simple and natural eloquence, which always conveyed her exact meaning in the terms that she wished, and nothing inore. She was close as regards her own concerns, faithful to the trusts of others, and endowed with the substance as well as the surface of cheerfulness, good humour, and an equable temperament, which made her at all times, and under all circumstances, absolute mistress of herself. Never did a woman possess more art, with less appearance of it; never was there a head so full of a multitude of schemes and subterfuges, or a greater knowledge of the human heart and of the means of directing it. I grant that she was proud and overbearing, unscrupulous about the means, provided she attained her ends, and yet she always gave a mild * First lady in waiting.-TRAN. and agreeable colouring to her proceedings. She was nothing by halves; jealous and imperious in her attachments, a warm and unchanging friend despite of time and separation, and a very implacable and obstinate enemy. Her love of life was not greater than her love of power; but her ambition was of that soaring description which is seldom experienced by women, and not often by men." The most lively picture of her character, her temperament, and the relations on which she laid the corner-stone of her influence at the Court of Spain, is presented in her own words, which she wrote to the Duchess of Noailles : "Good God! into what an affair you have led me! I have not the slightest rest, not even time to speak to my secretary. To think of taking some repose after dinner, or of eating when I am hungry, is altogether out of the question. I am exceedingly fortunate if I can dispatch a hasty meal whilst I am running about, and it rarely happens that I am not summoned at the moment that I am about to sit down to dinner. Madame de Maintenon would certainly laugh if she knew the different duties of my office. Tell her, I pray you, that I am the person who has the honour to receive the dressing-gown of the King of Spain when he retires to rest, and to hand the same to him, together with a pair of slippers, when he rises in the morning. Thus far I could stand it; but it is rather too coarse a jest for me every night when the King goes to bed with the Queen, to be laden by the Count of Benevento with the sword of his Majesty, a night utensil, and a lamp, which I spill over my dress as a matter of course. The King would never get out of bed if I did not first undraw the curtains, and it would be a sacrilege for any other person to enter the room of the Queen when they are in bed. On one occasion recently the lamp went out, because I had spilt half the oil. I did not know where the windows were, because it was night when we came to the place. I managed soon to run my nose against the wall, and the King and I ran up against each other for the space of a quarter of an hour, in our endeavours to find the window. His Majesty finds me so useful, that he often has the goodness to request my attendance two hours before I wish to rise. The Queen shares in these jests, but I have not yet won the same degree of confidence that she places in her Piedmontese attendants. I am astonished at this, because I am more attentive than they are, and I am persuaded that they neither undressed her nor washed her feet as cleverly as I do." King Philip the Fifth met his bride at Figueras, and their marriage was ratified by the Patriarch of the Indies on the 3rd of November 1701. Maria Louise had scarcely attained the age of fourteen, and appeared still younger, owing to her diminutive stature, but her mind possessed the early maturity of her native land, and she united the most engaging manners and the most agreeable address to an extraordinary beauty of feature and form. Her favourite expression was the following: "I have no will contrary to my duty;" and this in her mouth was not mere breath and words. Still the French Court did not trust the artful Piedmontese, and had given orders for her Italian suite to be sent home on The Duchess of Orleans, who disliked Princess Orsini because she had injured her son, yet gave her the precedence to that "old fool" Madame de Maintenon, "because she did not bring the Lord God on the scene, and did not play the dévote."-Letter to the Raugrafin Louise, p. 343. +11th December, 1701. reaching the Spanish frontier, and for her to be placed absolutely under the protection of Princess Orsini. She was deeply concerned at this, and broke forth in such bitter lamentations, that people at first suspected a deeper cause for this distress, than the natural feeling of a young girl who sees herself suddenly bereft of all her acquaintance and surrounded by entirely novel circumstances. However, the true state of things was soon discovered, and the equally affectionate and intelligent nature of the young Queen rose so much the higher in men's estimation. But we have a strong proof of the winning nature of Princess Orsini in the fact that she so rapidly effaced the first unfavourable impression, which is apparent in the letter above quoted, and that she obtained such an uncommon influence over the Queen. Matters went on smoothly till the year 1703. The administration of Spain, which had not yet suffered from war, was in Spanish hands, principally in those of Cardinal Portocarrero, and the only difficulties were presented by the indolence, the routine, the internal mismanagement, whims and quarrels of the Spanish officials, and by the inconsistency of Portocarrero; annoyances that were overcome by Princess Orsini, and that were rather irritating than seriously injurious. A new character, however, now entered the scene, in the person of Cardinal d'Estrées. Louis the Fourteenth fancied that he could govern Spain, like his own France, and yet felt disposed to indemnify himself for this trouble at the cost of Spain. The Duke of Harcourt had been the most popular envoy, and had consequently succeeded very well. The Count of Marsin had excited the hostility of the Spaniards, because he had been forced as a member into their council of state. Still he was wise enough to deter Louis the Fourteenth from his plan of obtaining the cession of the Spanish Netherlands. But in 1703 Louis sent Cardinal d'Estrées, a prelate distinguished for his noble birth, his learning, his integrity and his intelligence, as well as experience in diplomacy, who was, however, too consequential to suit the Spaniards, and who came to Spain with the idea of becoming its regent. He was accompanied by his nephew, the Abbé d'Estrées, who united to the same proud spirit a greater indiscretion and a more artful character; indeed he was not at all indisposed to rise at the expense of his uncle. Louville, a confidant of Philip, who was in possession of one of the highest appointments at his court, sided with these foreigners. He was a witty, satirical, conceited Frenchman, who sneered at every thing that was not French, and a personal enemy of Princess Orsini, whom he greatly injured by his caustic secret correspondence with Paris. To these was added the father confessor of the King, the Jesuit d'Aubenton, whose influence was also prejudicial to the princess. The Cardinal had not been a week in Madrid before a general explosion took place. There was some truth in the ironical remarks that Princess Orsini wrote at this time to the Duchess of Noailles : 'It is my earnest wish that his Eminence may find the satisfaction that he deserves and expects, that we shall succeed in healing the deeply-rooted injuries of this monarchy, and that his comprehensive, soaring, and enlightened spirit will be more directed to win over the Spaniards than to Anthony Count of Marsin became afterwards Maréchal of France, was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Turin (1706), and died the day after, owing, it is said, to an explosion of gunpowder in a neighbouring room to that occupied by him. |