Nevertheless, a welcome which savoured of absurdity was better than "greetings where no kindness is." In the Dutch capital Henrietta found her husband's sister, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, who was living there in exile. This lady, who had taken an accurate measure of her sister-in-law's influence over her brother, held her in the cool esteem with which relatives by marriage are frequently regarded, and had no real cordiality to show to the woman who was beginning to tread the Via Dolorosa her own feet had trodden so long. It happened, besides, that just at this time parties in Holland reproduced in miniature those of England. The House of Orange clung to the alliance with the House of Stuart, but the wealthy burgesses of Amsterdam and The Hague, who were democratic and republican in their views, had more sympathy with those who were fighting the battle of liberty across the waters of the North Sea. They showed Henrietta little kindness and scant courtesy. They gave her hints, which she refused to take, that they would be glad to see the last of her. They treated her with none of the deference due to her rank. A sturdy Dutch burgher would stride into her presence without removing his hat, sit down beside her and enter into conversation with her as if she were a fellow-townsman whom he had met in the street; or, perhaps, if he could not think of anything to say, would turn on his heel and go away without stopping to salute the Queen of England, all which amazing manners Henrietta, whose sense of humour never deserted her, carefully noted and described years afterward to Madame de Motteville.[264] But in spite of hostility the Queen's work prospered. She kept her daughter with her, while the boy-husband pursued the studies suitable to his age and rank; but she devoted her chief energies to raising money, a task in which she experienced some difficulty, as reports were circulated that she had carried off the crown jewels without the King's consent. She was, moreover, carefully watched, both by her unwilling hosts and by spies of the Parliament; but, nevertheless, she managed to sell or pawn some of her store, though at exorbitant rates, for, as she wrote to her husband, no sooner was it known that the King of England was in need of money than the usurers and merchants "keep their foot on our throat." Parliament issued a proclamation forbidding any of the "traitors" to approach the person of the Queen; but, nevertheless, her friends came not without the connivance of the Prince of Orange, who allowed two of them to lie at his own lodgings. George Digby and Henry Jermyn hastened to her side, and she was cheered by the arrival from France of another old friend from whom she had parted the year before in fear and distress.