LA PELEGRINA. 71
reed-covered
swamp are all that now remain. The island is gone, so also are the
royal houses whose meeting there was so great an event.
There
is one occasion upon which the Pele-grina served to deck a bride so
young and fair that it deserves more than a passing notice. The bride
was Marie Louise d'Orleans, the first wife of Charles II. This poor
sickly King, the last descendant of the mighty Charles v., was a very
shy boy and extremely averse to the society of women. When he was about
seventeen his mother and the royal council decided that he must be
married, and they cast their eyes upon the neighboring house of France,
into which Spanish monarchs were in the habit of marrying when not
engaged with it in war. The only suitable lady was "Mademoiselle" — for
such was in ancient France the distinctive title of the eldest niece of
the King. Mademoiselle, besides being niece to Louis xiv., was
furthermore pretty, vivacious, and only sixteen. Her portrait was
