th still greater men; I with William Prince of
Orange, the founder of the Dutch Commonwealth; you with Devereux Earl of
Essex, the favourite of Elizabeth and of the whole English nation. But,
alas! to complete the resemblance of our fates, we both saw those second
husbands, who had raised us so high, destroyed in the full meridian of
their glory and greatness: mine by the pistol of an assassin; yours still
more unhappily, by the axe, as a traitor.

_Countess of Clanricarde_.--There was indeed in some principal events of
our lives the conformity you observe. But your destiny, though it raised
you higher than me, was more unhappy than mine. For my father lived
honourably, and died in peace: yours was assassinated in his old age.
How, madam, did you support or recover your spirits under so rainy
misfortunes?

_Princess of Orange_.--The Prince of Orange left an infant son to my
care. The educating of him to be worthy of so illustrious a father, to
be the heir of his virtue as well as of his greatness, and the affairs of
the commonwealth, in which I interested myself for his sake, so filled my
mind, that they in some measure took from me the sense of my grief, which
nothing but such a great and important scene of business, such a
necessary talk of private and public duty, could have ever relieved. But
let me inquire in my turn, how did your heart find a balm to alleviate
the anguish of the wounds it had suffered? What employed your widowed
hours after the death of your Essex?

_Countess of Clanricarde_.--Madam, I did not long continue a widow: I
married again.

_Princess of Orange_.--Married again! With what prince, what king did
you marry? The widow of Sir Philip Sidney and of my Lord Essex could not
descend from them to a subject of less illustrious fame; and where could
you find one that was comparable to either?

_Countess of Clanricarde_.--I did not seek for one, madam: the heroism of
the former, and the ambition of the latter, had made me very unhappy. I
desired a quiet life and the joys of wedded love, with an agreeable,
virtuous, well-born, unambitious, unenterprising husband. All this I
found in the Earl of Clanricarde: and believe me, madam, I enjoyed more
solid felicity in Ireland with him, than I ever had possessed with my two
former husbands, in the pride of their glory, when England and all Europe
resounded with their praise.

_Princess of Orange_.--Can it be possible that the daughter of
Walsi