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

1640.] HEE FIRST APPEARANCE IN PUBLIC. 157
The King her father received a proposal of marriage for
Elizabeth, when she was only five years old, from Frede-
rick Henry, Stadth older of Holland, for his son William,
the hereditary Prince of Orange. This was at first enter-
tained favourably, but when the miniature of the Prince
was shown to the young Elizabeth, she very sagaciously
observed : " He is very handsome, but, I think, better
suited, to my sister than to me."
The hint was finally taken, and the Princess-royal was
substituted in the treaty, for her younger sister, to the
great joy of the royal suitor ; for Elizabeth, besides being
far too young, was sickly, and her unfitness for such an
engagement, was evident to the Dutch ambassadors.
The Princess Elizabeth first appeared in public in June,
1640, at the baptism of her infant brother, Prince Henry, on
which occasion her brothers, Charles Prince of Wales and the
Duke of York, were the godfathers, and the Princess-royal the
godmother. Elizabeth was only one of the spectators of this
solemn ceremonial, but a very attractive one, Avith her sweet
earnest countenance, and her long fair ringlets, just confined
from falling about her face, by a blue ribbon loosely tied.
She was, ten months later, an incognita spectator of the
espousals of her beloved sister and the Prince William of
Orange, from a window in the Queen's closet in Whitehall
palace.
She had her place at the state dinner, on that occa-
sion, and accompanied the Queen her mother and the
bride and bridegroom, in the afternoon, in their walk
through the parks.
Several months later, she was one of the joyous party,
when the Queen and her eldest sister, with her brothers,
the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, passed through
the city in royal state, to meet the King on his return
froni Scotland ; the last happy day they were permitted to