n had not then been thoroughly awakened; she still felt as a
wife and as a woman rather than as a Queen; and an insolence from Madame
de Verneuil occupied her feelings more nearly than a threatened
conspiracy. So great, indeed, was her distaste to the new character in
which she was summoned to appear, that when the King occasionally
addressed her with a gay smile as _Madame la Regente_, a cloud
invariably gathered upon her brow. Upon one occasion, when the royal
couple were walking in the park at Fontainebleau, attended by all the
Court, and that the monarch, who led the Dauphin by the hand, vainly
endeavoured to induce him to jump across a little stream which ran
beside their path, Henry became so enraged by his cowardice and
obstinacy that he raised him in his arms to dip him into the pigmy
current, a punishment which was, however, averted by the entreaties of
his mother; and the King reluctantly consented that he should suffer
nothing more than the mortification of being compelled to exchange her
care for that of his governess, Madame de Montglat. As the child was led
away the King sighed audibly, but in a few seconds he resumed the
conversation which had been thus unpleasantly interrupted, and once more
he addressed the Queen as _Madame la Regente_.

"I entreat of you, Sire, not to call me by that name," said Marie; "it
is full of associations which cannot fail to be painful to me."

[Illustration: MARIE DE MEDICIS. Paris: Richard Bentley and Son 1890.]

The King looked earnestly and even sadly upon her for a moment ere he
replied, and then it was in a tone as grave as that in which she uttered
her expostulation. "You are right," he said, "quite right not to wish
to survive me, for the close of my life will be the commencement of your
own troubles. You have occasionally shed tears when I have flogged your
son, but one day you will weep still more bitterly either over him or
yourself. My favourites have often excited your displeasure, but you
will find yourself some time hence more ill-used by those who obtain an
influence over the actions of Louis. Of one thing I can assure you, and
that is, knowing your temper so well as I do, and foreseeing that which
his will prove in after years--you, Madame, self-opinionated, not to say
headstrong, and he obstinate--you will assuredly break more than one
lance together." [311]

Poor Marie! She was little aware at that moment how soon so mournful a
prophecy was to become a st