Descendants of the Stuarts

OF THE STUARTS. 295
sent his son peremptory orders to return to Berlin.
A first summons was disregarded ; but, on a second,
Frederick William was reluctantly compelled to
yield, protesting nevertheless that he would yet
return to the Hague to claim his lovely cousin for
his bride. Writers disagree on the partiality which
this Princess is said to have exhibited for her suitor,
for whilst Mrs. Green* says that the attachment was
mutual, the Baroness de Bury,t on the contrary,
afiirms that she manifested great indifference towards
him; and that Frederick William, far from being in
love with her, only sought an alliance with her sister
Elizabeth : at all events, and by whatever motives
actuated, Frederick William never married his
cousin, as a few years afterwards he espoused her
namesake, Louisa of Orange, and so ended the only
reasonable prospect which ever presented itself of
the Princess Louisa entering the married estate.
Louisa, who was decidedly her mother's favourite,
remained at the poverty-stricken court of the
Hague long after her other children had deserted
her ; but a time was to arrive when she, who should
have been her parent's solace, was doomed to
inflict upon her the severest blow she had yet
received. On the motives which led Louisa to
desert her ancestors' faith and embrace the tenets
of the Church of Rome, we will not pronounce an
opinion. God alone, the reader of all hearts, can
* Green's Princesses of England, vol. vi,
t Baroness de Bury's Princess Palatine.