exquisite taste had rendered the prevailing mode of the court of the second Charles. She appears to no less advantage, however, when depicted by him in the character of Innocence, without a single ornament to enhance her natural charms, such as she was when she came to England in the early ripeness of sweet fifteen, as the reluctant bride of the duke of York.

We recognise her, in her youthful matron dignity, among "the light-o'-love' beauties," in the Hampton Court gallery, but distinguished from them by the vestal-like expression of her face. Her portraits, at a more advanced period of life, as queen of England, are among the finest specimens of sir Godfrey Kneller's art. Every one of these transcripts of the royal beauty, tells its progressive tale of melancholy interest, to the few who are intimately acquainted with the events of her life. Little, however, is now remembered in England of this queen, beyond the bare outline facts, that she was a princess of Modena, the consort of a dethroned and most unpopular sovereign, and the mother of the disinherited prince to whom the world applied the contemptuous epithet of " the Pretender."

The conjugal tenderness of Matilda of Boulogne, of Eleanor of Castile, and of Philippa, is deservedly appreciated, the maternal devotion of Margaret of Anjou, the patience of the long-suffering Catharine of Arragon, have received their due meed of praise, for they have become matter of history; but the history of Mary of Modena, for obvious reasons, has never been given to the world. Bold, indeed, would have been any writer of the last century, who should have ventured to call attention to the virtues and the sufferings of the faithful consort of the last and most unfortunate of the Stuart kings.

Among the princesses, who have worn the crown matrimonial of England, many have been born in a more elevated rank than Mary Beatrice of Modena; but few could boast of a more illustrious descent than she claimed as the daughter of the house of Esté. That family, so famous in the page of history, derives its name from the city of Esté, near the Euganean hills, between Verona and Padua; and surely no name is associated with nobler themes of interest, than the line of heroes, of whom Tasso, Ariosto, and Dante have sung more than once did they repel the

progress of the ferocious hordes of barbarians, who came prepared to ravage the fair fields of Italy. Forestus of Esté, the immediate ancestor of Mary Beatrice of Modena, was, in the year 452, entrusted with the command of the forces sent to relieve Aquiliea. He met, and put to flight, 16,000 of Attila's terrible Huns, and he continued to defy and hold the mighty barbarian at bay, till, by the treachery of some of his soldiers, he was drawn into an ambush, where, it is believed, he was slain by Attila's own hand. His son Acarinus, more than equalled his father's fame, and with better fortune maintained the freedom of his country for a much longer period, till he too sealed his patriotism with his blood.1

Poetry and romance have perhaps scattered their flowers among the traditionary glories of the ancient heroes of the line, but those garlands were the votive offerings of the grateful chroniclers and immortal bards of Italy, who, in every age from remote antiquity, found their noblest patrons in the chivalric and munificent princes of the house of Esté. No family in Europe has, indeed, contributed more to the progress of civilization, by liberal encouragement of literature and the fine arts.

Our sovereign lady queen Victoria is the representative of the elder branch of this illustrious stock, which in the year 1000, divided into two distinct houses, in consequence of the marriage of the reigning prince Azo, marquess of Tuscany and Liguria, with the heiress of the wealthy Bavarian family of Wolf or Guelph, when the eldest of his two sons, by this alliance, took the name and estates of his German mother; the younger became the representative of the house of Esté in Italy, and his descendants reigned over the united duchies of Ferrara and Modena. Alphonso II. dying in the year 1598, without issue, bequeathed his dominions to his kinsman, Cæsar d'Esté, but pope Clement VIII., under the pretence that Ferrara was a fief of the papal empire, seized on that territory and annexed it to his dominions."

After the loss of this fairest jewel in the ducal bonnet, the representative of the Italian line of Esté was only recognised in Europe as duke of Modena. This territory is History of the House of Esté, dedicated to Mary Beatrice, duchess of 2 Ibid.

York.

bounded on the south by Tuscany and Lucca, on the north by the duchy of Mantua, on the east by Bologna and the papal dominions, and on the west by Parma; it is about fifty-six English miles in length, and thirty-six in breadth. It is a fair and fruitful district, abounding in corn and wine. The duke, though a vassal of the Germanic empire, is absolute in his own dominions.

The father of Mary Beatrice, was Alphonso d'Esté duke of Modena, son of Francisco the Great and Maria Farnese. Her mother, Laura Martinozzi, claimed no higher rank than that of a Roman lady, being the daughter of Count Hieronimo Martinozzi da Fano, a Roman nobleman of ancient family, and Margaret, fourth sister of the famous minister of France, cardinal Mazarine. Mary Beatrice Eleanora d'Esté was the first fruit of this marriage; she was a seven months' child, born prematurely in the ducal palace, October 5th, 1658.* The name of Beatrice was given her in honour of St. Beatrice, a princess of the house of Esté, whose spiritual patroness she is, of course, supposed to be. According to the legendary superstitions of Modena, this royal saint was accustomed to knock at the palace gate three days before the death of every member of the ducal family. A runaway knock from some mischief-loving urchin may probably have frightened more than one of the princely race of Esté out of several years of life, from having been construed into one of the ominous warnings of holy St. Beatrice.

The city of Modena claims the honour of the birth of Tasso, of Correggio, and of the imperial general Montecuculi. A daughter of that house was educated with the young Mary Beatrice, and remained through life unalterably attached to her fortunes through good and ill.

4.66

"The father of Mary Beatrice," says a contemporary historian,* was a prince who would have been without doubt an ornament among the sovereigns of his age, if hard

The city of Modena was the ancient Mutina of the Romans, so much extolled by the ancient writers for its wealth and grandeur before the injuries it received while Decius Brutus was besieged there by Marc Antony. During the long and obstinate defence of the place, carrier pigeons were used by the consul Hertius, to convey intelligence, and to this day there is a famous breed of pigeons in Modena, trained to convey letters.-Keyler.

Leti Teatro Brittanica.

fortune had not fettered his talents in the cruel chains of the gout, which circumscribed his reign to four years of continued pain, during which 'his greatest consolation' as he himself affirmed, ' was that of having married a lady who appeared born to bring comfort to his afflictions." "

It was, indeed, fortunate for duke Alphonso, that he had chosen a consort from a rank not too much elevated, to prevent her from being skilled in one of the most valuable attributes of woman in domestic life-the sweet and tender office of a nurse. The duchess Laura manifested so much compassion and affectionate consideration for her suffering lord, that he never heard from her lips a word that could lead him to suppose that she was displeased at being the wife of a prince who was generally confined to his bed. Worn out with the acuteness of his agonizing malady, he died in the flower of his age, leaving his two infant children, Francis II., his successor, and Mary Beatrice, the subject of the present biography, to the guardianship of his duchess, on whom he conferred the regency of Modena, during the long minority of his infant successor, Francisco, who was two years younger than Mary Beatrice.

Prince Rinaldo d'Esté, afterwards cardinal d'Esté, the younger brother of Alphonso, was appointed as the state guardian of the children; and associated with the widowed duchess in the care of their education; but all the power was in her hands. The princely orphans were early trained to habits of virtue and religion by their mother; so fearful was she of injuring their characters by pernicious indulgence, that she rather erred on the opposite side, by exercising too stern a rule of discipline in their tender infancy. She loved them passionately, but she never excused thei faults. Both were delicate in constitution, but she never allowed them to relax their studies or the fasts enjoined by the church of which they were members on that account. The little princess had an insuperable aversion to soupe maigre, but her mother, who was always present when the children took their meals, compelled her to eat it, notwithstanding her reluctance and her tears.3

Mary Beatrice, from whose lips these little traits of her childhood were recorded after she was herself a 1 Leti Teatro Britannica.

Inedited Memorials of Mary Beatrice d'Esté in the Secret Archives au Royaume de France.

3 Ibid.

parent, was wont to say, "that the duchess her mother, considered this severity as her duty, but for her own part she would not imitate it, for on fast days, when she was compelled to eat of the maigre, she always left the table in tears, and she wished not for her children to regard any observance connected with their religion in so painful a light, but rather to perform those little sacrifices of inclination, as voluntary acts of obedience." 1

Her mother forbade sweetmeats and cakes to be given to her and the little duke her brother, lest such indulgences should create a propensity to gluttony; but that these orders were frequently broken there can be no doubt, for Mary Beatrice, when discussing this matter, also in after-years, said, "I recommended my son and daughter not to eat sweetmeats and cakes, but I did not forbid them, well knowing that these things would then have been given them by stealth, which it is not always possible to prevent; and this would have accustomed them to early habits of concealment and petty artifice, perhaps of falsehood."

The duchess of Modena discouraged every symptom of weakness and pusillanimity in her children, considering such propensities very derogatory to persons who are born to move in an elevated station. Those who conduct the education of princes, can never place too much importance on rendering them, habitually, insensible to fear. Intrepidity and self-possession in seasons of peril, are always expected from royalty. The greatest regnal talents, and the most exalted virtue, will not atone to the multitude for the absence of physical courage in a king or queen. When Mary Beatrice was a little child, she was frightened at the chimney sweepers who came to draw the chimney of her nursery; her mother made them come quite close to her, to convince her there was no cause for alarm. The young duke was compelled to study so hard, that it was represented to the duchess-regent, that his health was injured by such close application, and that his delicate constitution required more recreation and relaxation. Her reply was

that of a Roman mother-"Better that I should have no son than a son without wit and merit !" 4

1 MS. Memorials of the queen of James II. by a nun of Chaillot, in the Archives au Royaume de France. 4 Ibid.

* Ibid.

3 Ibid.