the Princess of Denmark was
driven by a storm back to Norway, the king resolved to hasten to her,
and consummate his marriage in Denmark, was itself as romantic an
expedition as afterwards was that of his son's into Spain, and betrays
no mark of that tame pusillanimity with which he stands overcharged.

The character of the queen of James the First is somewhat obscure in our
public history, for in it she makes no prominent figure; while in secret
history she is more apparent. Anne of Denmark was a spirited and
enterprising woman; and it appears from a passage in Sully, whose
authority should weigh with us, although we ought to recollect that it
is the French minister who writes, that she seems to have raised a court
faction against James, and inclined to favour the Spanish and catholic
interests; yet it may be alleged as a strong proof of James's political
wisdom, that the queen was never suffered to head a formidable party,
though she latterly might have engaged Prince Henry in that court
opposition. The _bonhommie_ of the king, on this subject, expressed with
a simplicity of style which, though it may not be royal, is something
better, appears in a letter to the queen, which has been preserved in
the appendix to Sir David Dalrymple's collections. It is without date,
but written when in Scotland, to quiet the queen's suspicions, that the
Earl of Mar, who had the care of Prince Henry, and whom she wished to
take out of his hands, had insinuated to the king that her majesty was
strongly disposed to any "popish or Spanish course." This letter
confirms the representation of Sully; but the extract is remarkable for
the manly simplicity of style which the king used.

"I say over again, leave these froward womanly apprehensions, for I
thank God I carry that love and respect unto you which, by the law of
God and nature, I ought to do to my wife, and mother of my children; but
not for that ye are a king's daughter; for whether ye were a king's
daughter, or a cook's daughter, ye must be all alike to me since my
wife. For the respect of your honourable birth and descent I married
you; but the love and respect I now bear you is because that ye are my
married wife, and so partaker of my honour, as of my other fortunes. I
beseech you excuse my plainness in this, for casting up of your birth is
a needless impertinent (that is, not pertinent) argument to me. God is
my witness, I ever preferred you to my bairns, much more than to a
su