Thus ended this long and important case; and now let me go back again to the events of the previous year.

Towards the end of the summer and the commencement of the winter of 1695, negotiations for peace were set on foot by the King.  Harlay, son-in-law of our enemy, was sent to Maestricht to sound the Dutch.  But in proportion as they saw peace desired were they less inclined to listen to terms.  They had even the impudence to insinuate to Harlay, whose paleness and thinness were extraordinary, that they took him for a sample of the reduced state of France!  He, without getting angry, replied pleasantly, that if they would give him the time to send for his wife, they would, perhaps, conceive another opinion of the position of the realm.  In effect, she was extremely fat, and of a very high colour.  He was rather roughly dismissed, and hastened to regain our frontier.

Two events followed each other very closely this winter.  The first was the death of the Princess of Orange, in London, at the end of January.  The King of England prayed our King to allow the Court to wear no mourning, and it was even prohibited to M. de Bouillon and M. de Duras, who were both related to the Prince of Orange.  The order was obeyed, and no word was said; but this sort of vengeance was thought petty.  Hopes were held out of a change in England, but they vanished immediately, and the Prince of Orange appeared more accredited there and stronger than ever.  The Princess was much regretted, and the Prince of Orange, who loved her and gave her his entire confidence, and even most marked respect, was for some days ill with grief.

The other event was strange.  The Duke of Hanover, who, in consequence of the Revolution, was destined to the throne of England after the Prince and Princess of Orange and the Princess of Denmark, had married his cousin-german, a daughter of the Duke of Zell.  She was beautiful, and he lived happily with her for some time.  The Count of Koenigsmarck, young and very well made, came to the Court, and gave him some umbrage.  The Duke of Hanover became jealous; he watched his wife and the Count, and at length believed himself fully assured of what he would have wished to remain ignorant of all his life.  Fury seized him:  he had the Count arrested and thrown into a hot oven.  Immediately afterwards he sent his wife to her father, who shut her up in one of his castles, where she was strictly guarded by the people of the Duke of Hanover.  An assembly of the Consistory was held in order to break off his marriage.  It was decided, very singularly, that the marriage was annulled so far as the Duke was concerned, and that he could marry another woman; but that it remained binding on the Duchess, and that she could not marry.  The children she had had during her marriage were declared legitimate.  The Duke of Hanover did not remain persuaded as to this last article.