th fair and
animated faces. As he glanced towards the Bastille, the minister
attracted his attention to the Comtesse d'Auvergne, who had latterly
been permitted to visit her husband, and who was gazing wistfully from
one of the narrow casements. As Henry recognized her, he withdrew his
plumed cap, and bent his head with a courtesy and kindness which was
remarked and commented upon by those around him; but his most gracious
recognition was vouchsafed to the Comtesse de Moret, who was seated at a
window in the Rue St. Antoine, surrounded by a bevy of beauties, who
only served to render her own loveliness the more conspicuous.[326]

Thus, amid the deafening report of the artillery and the enthusiastic
plaudits of the people, Henry and his Queen at length reached the
Louvre, and terminated their bloodless campaign.

On the 30th of May the law courts, after three long and patient
sittings, declared the ex-Queen Marguerite to be the lawful heir to the
counties of Auvergne and Clermont, the barony of La Tour, and other
estates which had appertained to the late Queen Catherine de Medicis;
asserting that they had hitherto been unjustly possessed by Charles de
Valois, who had also wrongfully derived his title of Comte d'Auvergne
from one of them; and directed that the said territories should
forthwith be transferred to the ex-Queen Marguerite, to whom they
rightfully belonged. When this decision was pronounced, the Princess was
assisting at the celebration of mass in the church of St. Saviour,
whither M. Drieux, her chancellor, at once proceeded with the glad
tidings, which he had no sooner imparted, than, overjoyed by the
intelligence, she rose from her knees before the service was concluded,
and leaving the church, hastened to the monastery of the Cordeliers,
where she caused a "Te Deum" to be chanted in gratitude for her success.

A few days subsequently, while at the Louvre, the ex-Queen, in the
presence of Marie de Medicis, made a donation of the recovered estates
to the Dauphin, on condition that they should be annexed to the Crown,
and never under any consideration, or upon any pretext, alienated.
Marguerite, however, reserved to herself the income derivable from these
possessions during her life; and she no sooner found her means adequate
to the undertaking than she commenced the enlargement of the hotel which
she had previously purchased in the Faubourg St. Germain, near the Pre
aux Clercs, and the embellishment of the