So the Prince of Orange was accepted, and it is to be hoped he never heard the unkind remarks that the bride's family made behind his back, for the queen always spoke of him as "the animal," and everybody ridiculed him. The arrangements for the marriage could not be completed without application to parliament for a dower. A committee was appointed to provide one, and they resolved to sell lands in the island of St. Christopher to the amount of eighty thousand pounds, and to make over that sum to the king for his eldest daughter. As soon as the bridegroom was informed that this important matter had been settled, he repaired to England, and went direct to Somerset House, which had been prepared for him and his attendants. Princess Anne was not flurried in the least, {079}when she was informed of his arrival. She was playing on the harpsichord at the time, and went on as though nothing unusual had happened. If she felt any curiosity to behold the man she was to marry, she certainly did not betray it, but appeared remarkably indifferent, and proved herself an uncommonly strong-minded young woman. A few days after his arrival in England the Prince of Orange was attacked with a severe illness, which confined him to his bed for many weeks. During the whole of that time not a single member of the royal family went near him, and it seemed to concern Princess Anne very little to know whether he were well or ill. The prince made no complaint about this shabby treatment, but his attendants did, and all they made by it was being called "Dutch boobies." The marriage was to have taken place before the end of the year, but it had to be postponed until the following March, and during the interval some of the arrangements that had been begun had to be left as they stood, half completed. No one was more annoyed by this postponement than the Duchess of Marlborough, for an enclosed passage way through which the wedding procession was to pass had been built up close to the windows of Marlborough House, and completely darkened the rooms. There it had to stay for four months, and the duchess frequently looked up at the boards, and said: "I do wish the princess would oblige me by taking away her _orange_ chest!" [[A.D. 1734.]] It was January before the bridegroom was well enough to be removed to Bath, and a couple of months later before his health was entirely restored. At last, on the fourteenth of March, the marriage was solemnized at St. James's Chapel by the Bishop of London.