oscope of the Dauphin--The sovereign and the surgeon--Birth
of Gaston Henri, son of Madame de Verneuil--Public entry of the Dauphin
into Paris--Exultation of Marie de Medicis.

The infatuation of the King for his new favourite decided M. de Sully to
hasten by every means in his power the marriage of the sovereign with
some European princess worthy to share his throne, and he accordingly
instructed the royal agents at Rome to demand forthwith the hand of
Marie de Medicis for the French monarch; while Henry, absorbed in his
passion, permitted him to act as he saw fit, offering neither assistance
nor impediment to a negotiation on which his domestic happiness was in
future to depend. Nor was it until the Duke urged upon him the necessity
of selecting such of his nobility as it was his pleasure to entrust with
the management of the affair in conjunction with the ambassador whom the
Grand Duke, her uncle, was about to despatch to Paris, that, by dint of
importunity, he was induced to name M. de Sully himself, the Constable,
the Chancellor, and the Sieur de Villeroy,[76] whose son, M.
d'Alincourt, had previously been sent to Rome to offer the
acknowledgments of Henry to his Holiness for the dissolution of his
marriage with Queen Marguerite, and to apprise him of that which he was
desirous to contract with Marie de Medicis. This duty performed, M.
d'Alincourt solicited the permission of the Pope to accompany Sillery to
Florence to pay his respects to the Princess and to negotiate the
alliance; and having obtained the required sanction, the two nobles set
forth upon their embassy, quite unaware that the preliminaries were
already nearly concluded.[77] So determined, indeed, had been the
minister that no time should be afforded to the King to redeem the
pledge which he had given to the favourite that Joannini, the agent of
the Grand Duke, had not been many days in Paris before the articles were
drawn up and signed on both sides, and Sully was commissioned by the
other contracting parties to communicate the termination of their
labours to his royal master. The account given by the minister of this
interview is highly characteristic.

"He had not," says the chronicler, "anticipated such expedition; and
thus when I had answered his question of where I had come from by 'We
come, Sire, from marrying you,' the Prince remained for a quarter of an
hour as though he had been stricken by thunder; then he began to pace
the chamber with lo