e; for the monarch no sooner learnt that the reception of his
mistress by the haughty and indignant Princess could be purchased by a
mere slight to Madame la Grande Prevoste, than he consented to sanction
the appointment of the Italian _suivante_ of Marie to the post of
honour; while Leonora soon succeeded by her tears and entreaties in
wringing from her royal mistress a reluctant acquiescence to
her request.

Thus then, as before stated, a hollow peace was patched up between the
unequal rivals; and Madame de Verneuil at length found herself in
possession of a folding-seat in the Queen's reception room; while her
coadjutress triumphantly took her place among the noblest ladies of the
land; but scarcely had this result been accomplished, when Henry,
profiting by so unhoped-for an opportunity of gratifying the vanity of
the favourite, assigned to her a suite of apartments in the Louvre
immediately above those of the Queen, and little, if at all, inferior to
them in magnificence.

This, however, was an affront which Marie de Medicis could not brook;
and she accordingly, with her usual independence of spirit, expressed
herself in no measured terms upon the subject, particularly to such of
her ladies as were likely to repeat her comments to the Marquise. The
latter retorted by assuming all the airs of royalty, and by assembling
about her a little court, for which that of the Queen herself was
frequently forsaken, especially by the monarch, who found the brilliant
circle of the favourite, wherein he always met a warm and enthusiastic
welcome, infinitely more to his taste than the formal etiquette and
reproachful frowns by which his presence in that of his royal consort
was usually signalized.

Nor could the annoyance of the proud Florentine Princess be subject of
astonishment to any rightly-constituted mind. The position was a
monstrous and an unnatural one. Both the wife and the mistress were
about to become mothers; and the whole Court was degraded by so
unblushing an exhibition of the profligacy of the monarch. Still,
however, the French ladies of the household forebore to censure their
sovereign; and even sought to persuade the outraged Queen that when once
she had given a Dauphin to France the favourite would be compelled to
leave the palace; but Marie's Italian followers were far less
scrupulous, and expressed their indignation in no measured terms. The
Queen, wounded in her most sacred feelings, became gradually col