Podebrad treated Matthias hospitably and affianced him with his daughter Catherine, but still detained him, for safety's sake, in Prague, even after a Magyar deputation had hastened thither to offer the youth the crown.
In her thirteenth year her brother promised her in marriage to Alphonso of Portugal, but she firmly refused to consent; her resistance seemed less likely to be effectual in the case of Pedro Giron, grand master of the order of Calatrava and brother of the marquis of Villena, to whom she was next affianced, when she was delivered from her fears by the sudden death of the bridegroom while on his way to the nuptials in 1466.
From that day Prince Andrew began to frequent the Rostovs' as Natasha's affianced lover.
Their box was pervaded by that atmosphere of an affianced couple which Natasha knew so well and liked so much.
In 1744 she was taken to Russia, to be affianced to the grandduke Peter, the nephew of the empress Elizabeth (q.v.), and her recognized heir.
