Here one trial after another seemed to come upon her. The Dutch populace called her and her husband "royal beggars." In 1628 she lost her oldest son, a brilliant boy, the heir to the throne, who went with his father to Haarlem to see the Dutch fleet return after its capture of the silver fleet of the Spaniards. The young man was drowned before his father's eyes, crying out, "Father, save me." There came a ray of joy to her when Gustavus Adolphus gained his victories. But this was taken away by the absence of her husband, who went to meet Gustavus. And next year Gustavus, who had been a sort of guardian angel, was killed. A few days after, came the news of her husband's death. Her previous calamities were trivial compared with this. She showed, as a writer says, "marvellous grief." Yet she confessed in a to the Dutch States that "her first great resource was heaven." Spanheim, her biographer, says: "Her letters are admirable for the strength of judgment, and for their dignified resignation and touching piety."
She seemed to be left alone, without husband or country, with none but her children. And these gave her increasing anxiety. One son was defeated and another captured by the emperor. Then came the death of the Duke Bernard of Weimar, who had been a guardian to her after her husband's death. Then came the bitter woe of a son and a daughter going over to Romanism. Her brother, King Charles I. of England, was beheaded. And yet her life was not entirely hopeless. She found at the Hague the society of cultured people. The Reformed ministers showed her much kindness. She lived quietly for many years at a country villa at Rheten. Here she pursued her favorite sport of the chase. Here she educated her children. Her house was called "the mansion of the muses and graces," because of her fair daughters. For there the great philosopher Descartes taught her daughter Elizabeth. But alas! her troubles were not yet past. The close of the Thirty Year's War gave back the Palatinate to her family, but only added to her discomforts. For as her son, the Elector Charles Lewis, did not care for her as he should, she suffered with increasing want. At length, bereaved of every object that endeared Holland to her, she accepted an invitation in 1661 to return to England. How different her return from her departure many years before. No shouts go up from assembled crowds, nor does any homage come from the nobles. She who had once been a power in the negotiations of nations and a queen of beauty in society, was forgotten. After living a short time quietly, she died February 13, 1662. "She was a princess of talents and virtues not often equalled, rarely surpassed." Her beauty and her tact made her a power in history. Brave men, as Gustavus Adolphus and Lord Craven, like the knights of the middle ages, were led by her beauty to take up her cause. Thus Duke Christian of Brunswick snatched a glove from her hand, kissed it, struck it into his hat as a plume, and then drawing his sword, took a solemn oath never to lay down arms until she was again on the throne of Bohemia. He placed as his motto on his flag: "For God and for her."
THE END
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