James's.
Miss Brett was to be rewarded with the coronet of a countess for her
degradation, the king being absent on the occasion at Hanover; elated by
her expectations, she took the liberty, during his majesty's absence, of
ordering a door to be broken out of her apartment into the royal garden,
where the princesses walked. The Princess Anne, not deigning to
associate with her, commanded that it should be forthwith closed. Miss
Brett imperiously reversed that order. In the midst of the affair, the
king died suddenly, and Anne Brett's reign was over, and her influence
soon as much forgotten as if she had never existed. The Princess Anne
was pining in the dulness of her royal home, when a marriage with the
Prince of Orange, was proposed for the consideration of his parents. It
was a miserable match as well as a miserable prospect, for the prince's
revenue amounted to no more than L12,000 a year; and the state and pomp
to which the Princess Royal had been accustomed could not be
contemplated on so small a fortune. It was still worse in point of that
poor consideration, happiness. The Prince of Orange was both deformed
and disgusting in his person, though his face was sensible in
expression; and if he inspired one idea more strongly than another when
he appeared in his uniform and cocked hat, and spoke bad French, or
worse English, it was that of seeing before one a dressed-up baboon.
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