lways since the
time of Philip VI been the appanage of a Prince of the Blood, or one of
the first nobles of the kingdom. The public rejoicings were universal,
and the satisfaction of the King without bounds. The little Prince was
privately baptized by the Cardinal de Gondy, until the state ceremonies
of his christening could take place; and on the 22d of the month he was
invested by the sovereign with the insignia of St. Michael and the Holy
Ghost, in the presence of the Cardinals, and the Commanders and Knights
of those Orders, with great pomp; after which a banquet was given by the
King in the great hall at Fontainebleau, and at nightfall the park was
illuminated in all directions by immense bonfires, and a pyrotechnic
display, which was witnessed by admiring and exulting thousands.

The intelligence which reached Paris on the following day that peace had
been restored between the Pope and the Venetians, through the
intervention of the French monarch; that the Papal excommunication which
had been fulminated against that republic had been repealed, and a
general absolution accorded, excited the enthusiasm of the French people
to its greatest height. They augured from this fact a brilliant future
for the little Prince, who had come into the world at the very moment
when the great work had been achieved; and this feeling was shared by
the august parents of the royal infant. So little can human foresight
fathom the designs of the Almighty Disposer of all things! Men
congratulated each other in the public street; and, forgetting the
Huguenot origin of Henry, considered him only as the champion of the
Romish faith; while they coupled his name and that of the Queen with
every endearing epithet of which they were susceptible.

The remainder of the summer was occupied by the monarch in the
embellishment of the capital, in high play,[370] and in his
rapidly-waning passion for Madame de Verneuil; while the Court resided
alternately at Fontainebleau and St. Germain; the Queen confining
herself more and more to the society of her children and her immediate
favourites, listening with jealous avidity to every rumour of infidelity
on the part of her royal consort, and occasionally renewing those
unhappy differences by which the whole of their married life had been
embittered.

The kingdom was at peace, but anarchy still reigned within the walls of
the palace. It is true that the advancing age of the monarch appeared to
offer a suf