he sunshine of a deep heartfelt
affection had never shone during life: the care of their own household,
and even that sweetest of all cares, the education of their children,
was taken from them by the new court arrangements. Undoubtedly in many
marriages, a good heart made up for the deficiency of the education of
that time; but scandalous occurrences were frequent in the highest
families at that period.

The domestic relations of these distinguished families belong also to
history, and much is very generally known of them. A picture of one of
these will here be made use of, in order to show that our generation
have no occasion to lose heart in contemplating it.

When the Imperial party, after the year 1620, persecuted the daughter
of the King of England, Elizabeth, wife of the Palatine, with satirical
pictures, they painted the proud princess, as going along the high road
with three children hanging on by her apron, or, as on the bare ground
eating pap from an earthenware platter. The second of these children
obtained, through the Westphalian peace, the eighth Electorate of the
German Empire. After many vicissitudes of fortune, after drinking the
bitter cup of banishment, and seeking in vain to recover his territory,
the new Elector, Karl Ludwig, looked down from the royal castle at
Heidelberg on the beautiful country, of which only a portion returned
into the possession of his line. His was not a nature which bore in
itself the guarantee of peace and happiness: it is true that in his
family he was considered jovial and good-humoured, but he was also
irritable, hasty, and passionate, covetous and full of pretension,
easily influenced, and without energy, inclined to venture rashly on
deeds of violence, and yet not firm enough to effect anything great. It
appears that he had derived from the blood of the Stuarts, besides a
high feeling of his own rank, much of the obstinacy of his ill-fated
uncle Charles. In the year 1650, he had married Charlotte, Princess of
Hesse, the daughter of that strong-minded woman, who, as Regent of her
country, had shown more energy than most men, and whose powerful
matronly countenance we still contemplate with pleasure, in the
portrait by Engelhard Schaeffler. The mother described her own daughter
to the Elector as difficult to rule; the Electress was indeed
passionate and without moderation, and must often have disturbed
domestic peace by her frowardness and jealousy. A young lady of her