"Sire," he said, "I allow that your majesty's quarrel is not to be terminated any other way than by a duel; but your majesty being just recovered from a most serious illness, and your health not being yet by any means reestablished, a relapse may occur on the day before or perhaps at the very hour of the important meeting; and in that case, what would the world say? How the King of England would boast? What scandalous constructions might be put on the circumstance! What an odious suspicion of your majesty's courage might ensue! Therefore I ask if you do not think it would be better to take no steps in the affair for a fortnight?" Thus was the king talked into delay; the challenge was not sent, and so the ministers on both sides gained sufficient time to effect a reconciliation. [[A.D. 1733.]] The English court was soon busy with another marriage,--that of Queen Caroline's eldest daughter, the Princess Anne. This young lady had reached the age of twenty-four, and it was thought high time for her to be married. When she was not more than sixteen Louis XV. proposed for her hand; but, being the representative of a Protestant family, she could not marry him, though she was so proud and ambitious that she was heard to say, {078}"I would die to-morrow to be queen to-day." She never loved her brothers, because she felt that their birth had deprived her of ever ascending the throne, and she often declared that she wished they had never appeared in the world. As she could not become a queen, she decided to descend a step, and accept the hand of the Prince of Orange. She had never seen him, but she was satisfied to know that his was an exalted station. The king and queen opposed the royal suitor because he was lame, his neck was crooked, he was otherwise dreadfully deformed, and he was one of the ugliest men in Europe. George told his daughter this, and added that she must not be deceived by the pictures the ambassadors had brought of him, because, although he was repulsive looking enough in them, they were nevertheless flattering. "I do not care how ugly he may be," she declared. "If he were a Dutch baboon I would marry him." This obstinacy made the king very angry, and he replied with his strong German accent, "Nay, then, have your way, have your way; you will find baboon enough, I promise you."