ndoning the litter in which
she had hitherto travelled, took her place in the state coach beside
their Majesties, by whom she was conducted to her appointed abode; nor
was it until repeated expressions of regard had been exchanged between
the ex-Queen and her successor, that the royal party returned to the
Tuileries.

After a sojourn of six weeks in the palace of Madrid, during which time
Marguerite not only revealed to the monarch all the details of the
Verneuil conspiracy, but also the particulars of another still more
serious, as it involved the cession of Marseilles, Toulon, and other
cities to the Spaniards, she became wearied of the forest villa, and
established herself in the archiepiscopal Hotel de Sens[306]; an
arrangement to which the King consented on condition that she should
make him two promises, one of which was that she would be more careful
of her health, "and not turn night into day, and day into night," as she
was accustomed to do; and the other, that she would restrain her
liberality, and endeavour to economize. To these requests the Princess
cheerfully answered that she would make an effort to obey his Majesty
upon the first point, although it would be a privation almost beyond
endurance, from the habit in which she had so long indulged of enjoying
the sunrise before she retired to rest; but with regard to the other
she must decline to give a pledge which she was certain to falsify, no
Valois having ever succeeded in such an attempt. It is probable that
Henry, from a consciousness of his own peculiar prodigalities, did not
feel himself authorized to insist upon a rigid observance of his
expressed wish, as although Marguerite had so frankly refused to
regulate her expenditure with more prudence, she was nevertheless
permitted to remain in the asylum which she had chosen; and this she
continued to do until the 5th of April 1606, when she was driven from it
by a tragedy that rendered it hateful to her.

Slender as was her retinue, it unfortunately included a young favourite
named Saint-Julien,[307] who, from some private pique, had induced her
to discharge from her service two attendants who had from their earliest
youth been members of her household, the one as page, and the other as
maid of honour; and who had ultimately married with her consent and
approbation, but upon being thus cast off, had found themselves ruined,
no noble house being willing to receive the dismissed attendants of the
dishono