state. Mary was in her person tall and well-proportioned, with an oval
visage, lively eyes, agreeable features, a mild aspect, and an air
of dignity. Her apprehension was clear, her memory tenacious, and her
judgment solid. She was a zealous protestant, scrupulously exact in
all the duties of devotion, of an even temper, and of a calm and mild
conversation. She was ruffled by no passion, and seems to have been a
stranger to the emotions of natural affection; for she ascended without
compunction the throne from which her father had been deposed, and
treated her sister as an alien to her blood. In a word, Mary seems to
have imbibed the cold disposition and apathy of her husband; and to
have centered all her ambition in deserving the epithet of an humble and
obedient wife. [056] _[See note L, at the end of this Vol.]_

RECONCILIATION BETWEEN THE KING AND THE PRINCESS OF DENMARK.

The princess Anne being informed of the queen's dangerous indisposition,
sent a lady of her bed-chamber to desire she might be admitted to her
majesty; but this request was not granted. She was thanked for her
expression of concern; and given to understand, that the physicians had
directed that the queen should be kept as quiet as possible. Before her
death, however, she sent a forgiving message to her sister; and after
her decease, the earl of Sunderland effected a reconciliation between
the king and the princess, who visited him at Kensington, where she was
received with uncommon civility. He appointed the palace of St. James
for her residence, and presented her with the greater part of the
queen's jewels. But a mutual jealousy and disgust subsisted under these
exteriors of friendship and esteem. The two houses of parliament waited
on the king at Kensington, with consolatory addresses on the death of
his consort; their example was followed by the regency of Scotland, the
city and clergy of London, the dissenting ministers, and almost all the
great corporations in England.*

* The earls of Rochester and Nottingham are said to have
started a doubt, whether the parliament was not dissolved by
the queen's death; but this dangerous motion met with no
countenance.

[Illustration: 2-056-william3.jpg WILLIAM III.]

CHAPTER V. WILLIAM.

_Account of the Lancashire Plot..... The Commons inquire
into the Abuses which had crept into the Army..... They
expel and prosecute some of their own Members for Corr