The other story is merely that when she was about ten years old, or not
so much, she was taken across the sea with her four little friends, the
four Maries, to France, to marry the king's son. They had a very stormy
voyage, and she was the only one of the company who was not sea-sick. So
she was very merry at the expense of all the others. No doubt a saintly
little princess would have been sorry for their sufferings; still,
perhaps many little girls would have laughed. Many princes have had
disagreeable uncles, like Crookedback Richard; indeed one might think,
like a little girl who had read history books, that 'all uncles are
_villains_.' But perhaps no prince ever had such a terrible ogre of a
father as Prince Frederick of Prussia, who became the great king and
general. Though his father was very particular about making Frederick
clean and neat, we do not find that he ever had a bath, or did more than
wash his hands and face. Indeed Frederick's father was a horrible ogre
in every way, though perhaps it was not unnatural that he did not like
the prince to be perpetually playing the flute, even when out hunting!
After all, when a child thinks of his own father and mother, and his
excellent uncles and aunts, he may be glad that he was not born to be a
prince, and be hidden from his enemies in a bundle of hay, like Duke
Richard, or dressed as a little boy, when she is a little girl; or
locked up for a year in a cold sanctuary; or be smothered in the Tower;
or run all the many uncomfortable risks of all these poor royal
children. The greater a man or woman is, the more terrible are the falls
from greatness, as in the case of the most unhappy of all queens, Marie
Antoinette. To be a good king a man must be far better and wiser than
other men, far more clever too; if he is not, he does more mischief, and
probably has to bear more misfortunes, like Richard II., than any
ordinary person. When we read about kings like Charles II., who only
lived to amuse himself; or Charles VII. of France, who was little
better—and not nearly so amusing—and think how many people far fitter
to be kings died for these unworthy princes, we begin to wonder at
kingship, at making a man king merely because he is his father's son.
However, to consider thus is to consider too curiously, and certainly
the lives of princes and princesses have been full of great adventures,
and are rather more interesting to read about than the lives of the sons
and daughters of the Presidents of Republics. Nobody tries to run away
with them; they have not to be dressed up as beggar boys, or hidden in
bundles of hay, and their fathers never burn their books, break their
flutes, shut them up in prison, and threaten to cut their heads off.
Thus we learn that there is a good side to everything, if we know where
to look for it, which is a very comforting reflection. But only a truly
sagacious person knows where to look for it, if the misfortune happens
to himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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