hesses or countesses, wearing ermine surcoats,
bodices, robes, and circlets,--that is to say, the coronets of
duchesses and countesses. These were the Duchesses d'Estouteville,
Montpensier (elder and younger); the Princesses de la
Roche-sur-Yon; the Duchesses de Guise, de Nivernois, d'Aumale, de
Valentinois (Diane de Poitiers), Mademoiselle la batarde legitimee
de France (the title of the king's daughter, Diane, who was
Duchesse de Castro-Farnese and afterwards Duchesse de
Montmorency-Damville), Madame la Connetable, and Mademoiselle de
Nemours; without mentioning other demoiselles who were not seated.
The four presidents of the courts of justice, wearing their caps,
several other members of the court, and the clerk du Tillet, mounted
the platform, made reverent bows, and the chief judge, Lizet,
kneeling down, harangued the queen. The chancellor then knelt down
and answered. The queen made her entry at half-past three o'clock in
an open litter, having Madame Marguerite de France sitting
opposite to her, and on either side of the litter the Cardinals of
Amboise, Chatillon, Boulogne, and de Lenoncourt in their episcopal
robes. She left her litter at the church of Notre-Dame, where she
was received by the clergy. After offering her prayer, she was
conducted by the rue de la Calandre to the palace, where the royal
supper was served in the great hall. She there appeared, seated at
the middle of the marble table, beneath a velvet dais strewn with
golden fleur-de-lis."

We may here put an end to one of those popular beliefs which are
repeated in many writers from Sauval down. It has been said that Henri
II. pushed his neglect of the proprieties so far as to put the initials
of his mistress on the buildings which Catherine advised him to continue
or to begin with so much magnificence. But the double monogram which can
be seen at the Louvre offers a daily denial to those who are so little
clear-sighted as to believe in silly nonsense which gratuitously insults
our kings and queens. The H or Henri and the two C's of Catherine which
back it, appear to represent the two D's of Diane. The coincidence may
have pleased Henri II., but it is none the less true that the royal
monogram contained officially the initial of the king and that of the
queen. This is so true that the monogram can still be seen on the column
of the Halle au Ble, which was built by Catherine alone. It can also be
seen