, for the
thoughts of a daughter. The judicious mother decided that such a match
was a good one; perhaps, in her heart, she was even overwhelmed by the
glory which this daughter of hers was permitted by Heaven to add to all
the glories of the illustrious Stolbergs and Horns. Anyhow, she accepted
eagerly; so eagerly as to forget both gratitude and prudence: for so far
from consulting her benefactress, Maria Theresa, about the advisability
of this marriage, or asking her sovereign permission for a step
which might draw upon the Empress-Queen some disagreeable diplomatic
correspondence with England, the Princess of Stolberg kept the matter
close, and did not even announce the marriage to the Court of Vienna;
yet she must have foreseen what occurred, namely, that Maria Theresa,
mortified not merely in her dignity as a sovereign, but also, and
perhaps more, in her ruling passion of benevolent meddlesomeness, would
suspend the pension which formed a large portion of the Princess's
income, and compel her to the abject apology before restoring it. The
marriage with Charles Edward Stuart was worth all that!

Louise of Stolberg was probably well aware of the extreme glory of the
marriage for which she had been reserved. The Fitz-Jameses, in virtue of
their illegitimate descent from James II., considered themselves and
were considered as a sort of Princes of the Blood; and as such they
doubtless impressed Louise with a great notion of the glory of the
Stuarts, and the absolute legitimacy of their claims. On his marriage
Charles Edward assumed the title, and attempted to assume the position,
of King of England; so his bride must have considered herself as the
wife not merely of the Count of Albany, but of Charles III., King of
Great Britain, France, and Ireland. She was going to be a _Queen_! We
must try, we democratic creatures of a time when kings and queens may
perfectly be adventurers and adventuresses, to put ourselves in the
place of this young lady of a century ago, brought up as a dignitary
of a chapter into which admission depended entirely upon the number
and quality of quarterings of the candidate's escutcheon, under a
superior--the Abbess of Ste. Wandru--who was the sister of the late
Emperor Francis, the sister-in-law of Maria Theresa; we must try and
conceive an institution something between a school, a sisterhood, and a
club, in which the ruling idea, the source of all dignity, jealousy,
envy, and triumph, was greatn