Lives of the last four princesses of the royal house of Stuart

108 MAEY, PEINCESS-EOYAL. [1C56.
the quest of mere idle diversions, for she was the bearer of
twenty thousand pistoles, which she had raised on her own
credit for his use, and certainly hoped it would not be
Avasted in profligate pursuits ; but Charles was incorrigible.
All her advice and kindness was wasted on him, and he
persisted in running the giddy round of folly, spending
lavishly what he had not taken the pains of gathering.*
Meantime the Princess-dowager, had feasted the lords of
Amsterdam, in return for the entertainment they had
given her. Some of the guests had said " the States could
not well subsist without the amity of England." A few
days aferwards she represented to them, that in conse-
quence of the Elector of Brandenburgh being engaged in
war, and the Princess-royal absent, she required the
States to appoint the presidents Paw, Deedell, and
Eaidt president-overseers of the young prince ; but after
debating on the subject, they replied " that nothing of the
kind could be done."
Nothing could be more cheering to the Princess-royal,
than this defeat of her mother-in-law, in her foolish
attempt to throw the Prince of Orange, in his childhood,
into the arms of the republican party.
" The young Prince of Orange is poor," reports one of the
secret intelligencers at Bruges, and the Princess-royal is
not thrifty ; she requires all she can spare to relieve the
poor English, of whom she has too many."
"The Princess-royal, hath promised towards her
brother's expedition a hundred thousand livres," writes
John Butler the spy.f "It is thought she will stay at
Bruges all this winter," continues he. "The people of
Holland and Zealand are very ill satisfied with her. She
admits none of them into her son's service, because accord-
ing to the phrase of the court ' they are all Cromwellians.' "
* Thurloe. f IWi