As Charles was not in love with Catharine of Braganza, never having laid eyes on her, he was easily turned from his purpose, and broke off all negotiations with the Portuguese court. {185}But he did not abandon his intention to marry; and so despatched the Earl of Bristol to Parma to make minute inquiries as to the qualifications of the princesses of that court. The well-known fondness of Charles II. for handsome women obliged the earl to make his observations with great care; so when one glance at the ladies, on their way to church, convinced him that one was too fat, and both were too ugly, to please his royal master, he dared not present a favorable report. Meanwhile the king had taken pains to inquire of other travellers who had been to Portugal, what sort of a woman the infanta really was; and the descriptions he got were so different from those presented by the Spaniards, that he altered his manner towards Don Francisco, and began to show him many marks of courtesy. This enraged Vatteville, the Spanish ambassador, to such a degree, that he openly declared, "that he was directed by the king, his master, to let his majesty know, that, if he should proceed towards a marriage with the daughter of his rebel, the Duke of Braganza, he had orders to take his leave presently, and declare war against him." This excited the king's indignation, and he manfully replied, "that the ambassador might be gone as soon as he liked." Then Vatteville found that he had gone too far, and resorted to the most fulsome flattery in order to conciliate the irate king. At last a special messenger arrived from France with a private communication from Louis XIV., expressing regret that any obstruction to the Portuguese match had arisen; and assuring King Charles that Catharine was a lady of rare beauty and accomplishments. While Charles hesitated, he received a portrait of the dark-eyed infanta, which, after all, made a deeper impression {186}on his heart than diplomatists, promises of wealth, or the reasoning of his lord-chancellor, could ever have accomplished. In this portrait the princess was represented as a brilliant brunette, with large, dark eyes, and a profusion of brown hair arranged in short curls on each side of the head, and falling to the waist in ringlets at the back. "This person cannot be unhandsome," said the king, gazing attentively on the face of the woman he was so soon to marry. The ambassador was summoned, and requested to repeat to his majesty all that England was to gain in the event of his marriage with the Portuguese princess. Don Francisco assured Charles that the money he had promised in the name of the queen-regent was all sealed up in bags awaiting transportation; and that the fleet which was to be sent for the princess might even go first and take possession of Tangiers.