Descendants of the Stuarts

OF THE STUARTS. 301
her nieces, because I could converse with her about
almost everybody she had known in the whole
course of her life, which the others could not. She
used frequently to talk German with me, which she
knew very well, and she told me all her adventures.
I asked her how she could accustom herself to the
monastic life. She laughed and said, ' I never
speak to the nuns but to give orders.' She had a
deaf nun with her, in her own chamber, that she
might not feel any desire to speak. She told me
that she had always been fond of a country life,
and that she still could fancy herself a country
girl. ' But,' I asked her, ' how do you like
getting up and going to church in the middle of
the night? ' She replied, that she did as the
painters do, who increase the splendour of their
light, by the introduction of deep shadows. She
had in general the faculty of giving to all things a
turn which deprived them of their absurdity."*
In her latter years, however, Louisa undoubtedly
became more religious, and laboured zealously to
reclaim her sister Sophia to her adopted creed ; but
this Princess, too principled, or too wary, refused to
embrace a faith which would have proved so detri-
mental to her temporal interests. Whilst Louisa
openly expressed her wish that the son of James II.
would supplant her (Sophia) in the possession of the
British throne, Sophia, with equal frankness, conde-
scended to argue the point with her, nor felt offended
by her avowal of ultra- Stuartism. It is pleasing to
* Duchess of Orleans.
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