ficient guarantee for his moral reformation, but the daily
experience of the Queen sufficed to convince her that she must never
hope for domestic happiness; and this conviction doubtless tended to
place her more thoroughly in the power of those treacherous advisers
who, in order to strengthen their own influence, did not hesitate to
exaggerate (where exaggeration was possible) the painful errors of her
husband. She saw herself idolized by the people, who regarded her with
earnest affection as the mother of two Princes whom they looked upon as
pledges for the safety and prosperity of France, while she found herself
at the same time an object of indifference to the monarch whom they were
destined to succeed; and who, while he lavished upon his children
incessant tokens of tenderness, sacrificed her personal happiness to
every passing fancy, even at the time when he affected to reproach her
with a coldness of which he was himself the cause.

Again we fearlessly repeat that the historians of the time have not done
Marie de Medicis justice. They expatiate upon her faults, they enlarge
upon her weaknesses, they descant upon her errors; but they touch
lightly and carelessly upon the primary influences which governed her
after-life. She arrived in her new kingdom young, hopeful, and
happy--young, and her youth was blighted by neglect; hopeful, and her
hopes were crushed by unkindness; happy, and her happiness was marred by
inconstancy and insult. Her woman-nature, plastic as it might have been
under more fortunate circumstances, became indurated to harshness; and
it is not they who strive to work upon the most solid marble who should
complain if the chisel with which they pursue their purpose become
blunted in the process.

On the 5th of September of this year died M. de Bellievre, the
Chancellor of France, whose probity and justice had rendered him dear to
the people, in whose eyes the withdrawal of his Court favour only tended
to enhance his valuable qualities. He was, as a natural consequence,
succeeded by Brulart de Sillery, who had already superseded him as
Keeper of the Seals; and his body was attended to the church of St.
Germain-l'Auxerrois by a vast concourse of the citizens.

His demise was, in November, followed by that of the Cardinal de
Lorraine,[371] who, with the usual superstition of the age, was declared
to have been bewitched because his malady had baffled the skill of his
physicians; while that which render