QUEEN CONSORT OF JAMES II. KING OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
Queen Mary Beatrice-Deceptive hopes for her son-Fuller's libels on her re-
published-Censured by parliament-Bill of attainder against her son-At-
tempts of the lords to attaint Mary Beatrice by a clause-Resisted by the
commons-Lords bring in a separate bill against her Remarks thereupon-
Her pathetic letters-Contemptuous treatment of the bill by house of commons
-Abjuration of the young prince-Agitation of the widowed queen-Death
of king William Accession of queen Anne-Dangerous illness of queen
Mary Beatrice-Her letters - Her poverty-Alarming progress of organic
malady-Her patience-Divisions in her council-Her timorous policy-Ma-
ternal weakness-Her devotion to king James's memory-Pretended miracles
-Queen cajoled by lord Lovat-Sells her jewels to equip troops-Distrusts lord
Middleton-Her sufferings-Consults a cancer doctress-Dissuaded by madame
Maintenon-Her letters-She prints a life of king James-Sickness of her son
-Deaths in her household-Duke of Berwick warns the queen of Lovat's
villany-Berwick's opinion of the queen-Her kindness to him-She goes to
royal fête at Marli-Respect paid to her by Louis XIV.-Her melancholy let-
ter-Sickness of her son-Letters thereupon-His recovery-Early promise
of the princess-She is presented at the court of France--Grand ball at Marli
-Respect paid to the royal exiles--Return of the queen's malady--Dangerous
symptoms-Her letters--Secret correspondence with Marlborough and Godol-
phin-Description of the prince and princess-Prince attains his majority-
Life at St. Germains--Frolics of the prince and princess-Stars of St. Germains
-Merry pilgrims-Royal haymakers-Carnival at St. Germains.
It would not have been difficult for a mind so deeply impressed with
the vanity of earthly greatness, as that of Mary Beatrice, to have
resigned itself to the all-wise decrees of "Him by whom kings do
reign," if the fact could have been made apparent to her, that the sceptre
had passed from the royal house of Stuart for ever. But, in common
with those who perilled their lives and fortunes in the cause of her son,
she beheld it in a different light, from that in which the calm moralist
reviews the struggle, after time has unveiled all mysteries, and turned
the dark page of a doubtful future into the records of the irrevocable past.
The devoted partisans of legitimacy, by whom Mary Beatrice was
surrounded at St. Germains, persuaded her that a peaceful restoration of
their exiled prince was at hand; they fancied they recognised the retri-
butive justice of Heaven in the remarkable manner in which his rivals
had been swept from the scene. The fact was no less strange than true,
that in consequence of the premature death of the childless Mary, the
utter bereavement of the princess Anne, and the inevitable failure of the
Nassau-Stuart line with William III., the son of James II. had become
the presumptive heir of those on whom parliament had, in the year