Then the frost set in, and all the canals and sluggish streams were
sheets of ice, to which the market people skated, flying along upon
the ice like birds. We kept my brother's room as warm as it was in
our power to do, and made him lie in bed till the house was
thoroughly heated, and he did not suffer much or become materially
worse in the winter, but he was urgent upon us to go out and see the
curious sights and share the diversions as far as was possible for
us. Most of the Dutch ladies skated beautifully, and the younger
ones performed dances on the ice with their cavaliers, but all was
done more quietly than usual on account of the mourning, the Prince
of Orange being not yet buried, and his child frail and sickly. The
Baptism did not take place till January, and then we were especially
invited to be present. Though of course my brother could not go,
Annora and I did so. The poor child had three sets of States-General
for his godfathers, his godmothers being his grandmother, the elder
Princess of Orange, and his great aunt, Queen Elisabeth of Bohemia.
The Duke of York, who had lately arrived, was asked to carry the
little Prince to church, but he shuddered at the notion of touching a
baby, as much as did his sister a the idea of trusting her precious
child with him, so the infant was placed in the arms of one of his
young aunts, Mademoiselle Albertine of Nassau.
I saw no more than a roll of ermine, and did not understand much of
the long sermon with which the Dutch minister precluded the ceremony,
and which was as alien to my sister's ideas of a christening as it
was to mine.
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