In the splendid days of Charles the Bold, he who had been Count of Flanders and the Netherlands had been also Duke of Burgundy, a most unwilling vassal to the French crown. Since his time, that province of his great inheritance had become part and parcel of the dominion of King Louis, and when the Princess of Orange halted at the ancient city of Peronne she was well within French territory.
Here, at the capital of the old Burgundian Duchy, she was met by her second brother, James, Duke of York, at this time—through no fault of his own—reduced to a life of inaction at Paris, and here possibly began the prologue of the romance which was to affect not only his own life, but the future of the far-off country of his birth. Of this more later. With the Duke, and attached to his person, were the Lord Gerard and Sir Charles Berkeley, besides M. Sanguin, maître d’hôtel to the French king.
So accompanied Mary pursued her journey, to be met by her mother and sister at Bourgel, six miles from Paris.
Of her stay in the French capital, though it extended over a period of some months, there are but scanty records, but that she entered fully into all the gaiety which surrounded the boy King is certain.
Anne Hyde appears to have caught smallpox during the visit, but it was a slight attack and she probably escaped without disfigurement.[[39]] She had not been well early in the year, as appears from Sir Alexander Hume’s letter from Teyling on 22nd February.
[39]. Rawlinson MS. (Bodleian).
“I have acquainted your neece Mrs Hide with the tendernesse you expresse for her, who returns her humble service to you with many thanks for your care of her. But shee hath not been in any such euill disposition of health as it seemes you have been informed, only one day shee took a little physick since when shee hath euer been a great deal healthfuller and handsomer than before, and shee is indeed a very excellent person both for body and minde as any young gentlewoman that I know.”[[40]]
[40]. Nicholas Papers.
Whether she won such golden opinions at Paris does not appear, but probably she held her own there as well as in Holland. She had always plenty of self-possession, which carried her through many anxious moments, and if any special admirers manifested themselves there, it must have been only to be flouted.
If the image of one too high in place to be acknowledged had already been imprinted on her mind, she at least made no sign, but it is evident that the young maid of honour was in no apparent haste to change her condition, and was capable of determination in the management of her affairs. She did not succeed in overcoming the prejudice of the English queen-mother, and this was no doubt a cause of keen disappointment and vexation to her own mistress. Mary had also other reasons for annoyance on her own account. Besides the fact of Frances Stanhope’s conversion to Rome, which was made as public as possible, she had to withstand her mother’s pertinacity in this direction. Henrietta, who never left a stone unturned to bring her children over to her own faith, insisted on taking her elder daughter with her to her beloved convent at Chaillot, in the hope of working on her feelings to the extent of securing her for the fold of Rome. These efforts were useless, but they made matters more or less uncomfortable for the Princess, who moreover strongly resented anything in the shape of coercion. Keenly, therefore, as she appreciated and admired the splendour and gaiety of the French Court, her visit was not altogether free from drawbacks. Nevertheless, she might have prolonged her stay but for the intelligence of her little son’s alarming illness. It turned out to be only measles, and the child made a good recovery, but his mother lost no time in starting on her journey, and it was not long before she and her train found themselves once more at home. It is certain that the Princess had at this time no suspicion of any understanding between her brother and Anne Hyde, for the latter remained in her service and high in her favour till the year before the Restoration. One glimpse we have of the English girl at this time from the facile and often extremely amusing pen of the Princess Palatine, Elizabeth Charlotte, afterwards Duchesse d’Orléans, but at that time a child. Her grandmother, the Queen of Bohemia, brought her to Mary’s Court, a wild, unruly little person, but she records gratefully the fact that Mistress Hyde was kind and good-natured.