Elizabeth Charlotte had been married to Philip of Orleans, the quondam
husband of her fair cousin, Henrietta Stuart, and Louise was her chief
consolation in an exceedingly unhappy life. "One cannot believe how
pleasant and playful the Princess of Maubuisson was," she said, "I
always visited her with pleasure; no moment could seem tedious in her
company. I was in greater favour with her than her other nieces,
(Edward's daughters,) because I could converse with her about
everything she had gone through in her life, which the others could
not. She often talked to me in German, which she spoke very well. She
told me her comical tales. I asked her how she had been able to
habituate herself to a stupid cloister life. She laughed, and said: 'I
never speak to the nuns, except to communicate my orders.' She said
she had always liked a country life, and fancied she lived like a
country girl. I said: 'But to get up in the night and to go to
church!' She answered, laughing, that I knew well what painters were;
they like to see dark places and the shadows caused by lights, and this
gave her every day fresh taste for painting. {348} She could turn
everything in this way, that it should not seem dull."[9] But in spite
of her flippant speeches, Louise was respected by all who knew her,
adored in her own convent, and died in the odour of sanctity, attesting
to the end her staunch adherence to the Jacobite cause.
Edward, with whom Rupert had more intercourse than with the other
members of his family, died young, three years after the Restoration,
and thus Rupert was left alone in England. Occasionally he wrote to
his sisters, but not very often. "If you knew how much joy your
letters give me I am sure you would have the good nature to let me
receive them oftener than you do,"[10] declared Elizabeth. And Sophie
complained likewise: "It is so long since I have heard from Rupert that
I do not know if he is still alive."[11] With Elizabeth, Rupert had a
common ground in the contests they both waged with "Timon" the Elector:
"Timon is so finely vexed at the 6,000 rix dollars he has to pay me,
out of a clear debt, that he will not send me my annuity,"[12] declared
Elizabeth in 1665. Rupert's own quarrels with "Timon" were more
bitter. The unsettled dispute about the appanage had been aggravated
by the struggle over their mother's will. The Queen had threatened, in
her wrath, to bequeath her unsatisfied claims on the Elector to his
brothers. This she had not done, but she had made Rupert her residuary
legatee, leaving to him most of her jewels. The Elector, as we have
seen, denied his mother's right to do this. Rupert refused to give up
his legacy, and for years the sordid dispute dragged on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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