the King; and announced her determination, now that
she had become the mother of a son, to enforce its observance.

These monstrous pretensions, which were soon made known to the Queen,
at once wounded and exasperated her feelings; and she anxiously awaited
the moment when some new imprudence of the favourite should open the
eyes of the monarch to her delinquency, as she had already become aware
that mere argument on her own part would avail nothing.

Several writers, and among them even female ones, yielding to the
prestige attached to the name of Henri IV, have sought the solution of
all his domestic discomfort in the "Italian jealousy" of Marie de
Medicis; but surely it is not difficult to excuse it under circumstances
of such extraordinary trial. Marie was a wife, a mother, and a queen;
and in each of these characters she was insulted and outraged. As a
wife, she saw her rights invaded--as a mother, the legitimacy of her son
questioned--and as a queen her dignity compromised. What very inferior
causes have produced disastrous effects even in private life! The only
subject of astonishment which can be rationally entertained is the
comparative patience with which at this period of her career she
submitted to the humiliations that were heaped upon her.

In vain did she complain to her royal consort of the insulting calumnies
of Madame de Verneuil; he either affected to disbelieve that she had
been guilty of such absurd assumption, or reproached Marie with a want
of self-respect in listening to the idle tattle of eavesdroppers and
sycophants; alleging that her foreign followers, spoiled by her
indulgence, and encouraged by her credulity, were the scourge of his
Court; and that she would do well to dismiss them before they
accomplished her own unhappiness. A hint to this effect always sufficed
to silence the Queen, to whom the society and support of Leonora and her
husband were becoming each day more necessary; and thus she devoured her
tears and stifled her wretchedness, trusting that the arrogance and
presumption of the Marquise would ultimately serve her better than her
own remonstrances.

Such was the position of affairs when the intrigue to which allusion has
been already made promised to produce the desired result; and it can
create no surprise that Marie should eagerly indulge the hope of
delivering herself from an obnoxious and formidable rival, when the
opportunity presented itself of accomplishing so desira