hen hastened his return to
Paris in order to prepare the gorgeous dress already alluded to
elsewhere as having been defrayed by his gains at play.

Towards the close of the month, the two illustrious sponsors reached
Villers-Cotterets, where they were met by the King and Queen, with the
whole Court, and thence conducted to Paris. The Duchess arrived in a
state coach of such extreme magnificence as to attract immediate notice,
but with so slender a retinue as to provoke the sarcasms of the
courtiers, who declared that they recognized her rank only by the
carriage in which she rode; and _the Mantuan suite_ accordingly became a
favourite topic with the idle and the censorious. Great preparations
were made at Notre-Dame for the ceremony, which was to take place on the
14th of September, and meanwhile nothing was thought of save pleasure
and preparation. Bassompierre gives an amusing account of the distress
of the tailors and embroiderers of the capital, who were unable to
comply with the demands of their employers, and many of whom were
kidnapped and carried off by persons of the highest rank in order to
secure themselves against disappointment. All Paris was in turmoil; the
great were busy in devising costumes which were to transcend all that
had previously been seen at the French Court, and the operatives were
equally occupied in executing the orders which they received.

In the midst of this excitement, however, the plague, which had long
existed in the capital, declared itself more fatally; several officers
of Queen Marguerite's household died under her roof, and the alarm
became so great that the King removed his Court to Fontainebleau, where
the baptismal ceremonies were performed with great magnificence on the
day previously appointed.

These ceremonies were so curious and characteristic that we shall offer
no apology to our readers for giving them in detail.

Each of the royal children had been privately baptized a few days after
its birth, but the public christening had been hitherto deferred in
order that it might be celebrated with becoming splendour. The desire of
the King had always been that the Sovereign-Pontiff should act as
sponsor to the Dauphin, the eldest son of France being, as he declared,
the eldest son of the Church, and the successive deaths of Clement
VIII[340] and Leo XI[341] had accordingly delayed the celebration of the
ceremony. Paul V was, however, no sooner apprised of the wishes of the
F