[29]. Evelyn’s “Correspondence.”
[30]. “A Royal Cavalier: The Romance of Rupert, Prince Palatine.” Mrs Steuart Erskine.
The “Royaltie” which the Queen describes was not unique. There were many such revels at the Court of The Hague. The Princess Mary, recovered from the shock of her early widowhood, and eager for enjoyment, loved these occasions, and shone at them with hereditary grace, while in every festive gathering her maids necessarily bore their part. The Queen writes to her nephew, Charles II., during the same January of another Royalty—she wrote to him very often, by the way:
“Though I believe you had more meat and drink at Hannibal Sestade’s, yet I am sure our fiddles were better and dancers; your sister was very well dressed like an amazon; the Princess Tarente like a shepherdess; Mademoiselle d’Orange, a nymph. They were all very well dressed, but I wished all the night your Majesty had seen Vanderdons. There never was seen the like; he was a gipsy, Nan Hyde was his wife; he had pantaloons close to him of red and yellow striped, with ruffled sleeves; he looked just like a Jock-a-lent. They were twenty-six in all, and came [not?] home till five o’clock in the morning.”[[31]]
[31]. “Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia.” M. A. Green, revised by S. C. Lomas.
A little before this Elizabeth had written to the same correspondent of the amusements of his sister:
“My dear niece recovers her health and good looks extremely by her exercises, she twice dancing with the maskers; it has done her much good. We had it two nights, the first time it was deadly cold, but the last time the weather was a little better. The subject your Majesty will see was not extraordinary, but it was very well danced. Our Dutch minister said nothing against it, but a little French preacher, Carré, by his sermon set all the church a-laughing.”
An early allusion to the festivities in which Anne Hyde afterwards shared and shone.
In the year 1655, within a few months of her appointment in the Princess Mary’s service, Anne’s young charms of mind and body brought to her feet at least one lover worth the winning.