ith her fine hair flowing over her
shoulders.[103] There she remained for two days, in order to recover
from the effects of her voyage; after which she re-embarked and
proceeded to Marseilles, where she arrived on the evening of Friday the
3d of November. A gallery had been constructed from the port to the
grand entrance of the palace in which apartments had been prepared for
her; and on stepping from her galley, she was welcomed by the
Chancellor,[104] who announced to her the orders that he had received
from the King relative to her reception, and presented to her Majesty
the Connetable--Duc de Montmorency,[105] and the Ducs de Nemours[106]
and de Ventadour.[107] The consuls and citizens then tendered to her
upon their knees the keys of the city in gold, linked together by a
chain of the same precious metal; after which ceremony, the young Queen
was conducted to the palace under a rich canopy, preceded by the
Constable, surrounded by the Cardinals and prelates who had been sent to
welcome her, and followed by the wife of the Chancellor, and the other
great ladies of the Court. So long a delay having occurred between her
betrothal and her marriage, the Princess had been enabled to render
herself mistress of the language of her new country; and the
satisfaction of the courtiers was consequently undisguised when she
offered her acknowledgments for the courtesy of her reception in their
own tongue; a gratification which was enhanced by the fact that Marie
had made no effort to assimilate her costume to that of the French
Court, but appeared in a robe of cloth of gold on a blue ground,
fashioned in the Italian taste, and with her fine fair hair simply
braided and utterly destitute of powder;[108] a circumstance which had
already sufficed to awaken the jealousy of the French princesses.

On the following day the Queen held a reception in the great hall of the
palace, and graciously listened, surrounded by her august relatives, to
the eloquent and celebrated harangue of M. du Vair,[109] the president
of the Parliament of Provence; to which she had no sooner replied than
she hastened to examine from the balcony a sumptuous state-carriage
presented to her by the King, and then retired to her own apartments,
attended by her personal suite. Of the royal vehicle in question Cayet
gives a minute description, which we transcribe as affording an accurate
idea of the taste displayed in that age in the decoration of coaches:
"It was,"