This lady had, when a girl, inspired William with a passion which had caused much scandal and much unhappiness in the little Court of the Hague.

Her influence over him she owed not to her personal charms,--for it tasked all the art of Kneller to make her look tolerably on canvass,--not to those talents which peculiarly belong to her sex,--for she did not excel in playful talk, and her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace--, but to powers of mind which qualified her to partake the cares and guide the counsels of statesmen.

To the end of her life great politicians sought her advice.

Even Swift, the shrewdest and most cynical of her contemporaries, pronounced her the wisest of women, and more than once sate, fascinated by her conversation, from two in the afternoon till near midnight.

[494] By degrees the virtues and charms of Mary conquered the first place in her husband's affection.