e
of the King and the prospect afforded by the extreme youth of the
Dauphin of a protracted minority, and she consequently hastened to
express to Henry her earnest desire to feel herself in reality Queen of
France before his departure from the kingdom, in order that she might
not have to apprehend any neglect of her legitimate authority upon the
part of the ministers whom he had selected to share with her the burthen
of state affairs. The monarch, who had hitherto refused to listen to
every suggestion which had been made to him of the propriety of showing
this mark of consideration to his royal consort, was even less inclined
to make the concession at this particular moment, when the expenses of
his meditated campaign had been estimated at twelve hundred and fifty
livres a month for the support of his own troops and an equal sum for
those of his allies;[418] and he replied with considerable warmth that
she had chosen her time for such a request most injudiciously, since she
must be aware that he had neither the time nor the funds necessary to
the indulgence of so puerile a vanity. The Queen, however, urged by her
advisers, resolutely returned to the charge, declaring that she could
assume no prominent position in the temporary government of the kingdom
while her own remained so vague and undefined. She reminded him,
moreover, of the uncomplaining patience with which she had awaited his
pleasure upon this particular; a patience which, as she asserted, she
could still have exercised had he not been about to cross the frontier,
but which, under existing circumstances, she now considered as weak and
pusillanimous in the mother of three princes.[419]

"At length, however," says Bassompierre, whose own more than
questionable morality did not permit him to enact the censor upon his
sovereign, "as he was the best husband in the world, he finished by
giving his consent, and delayed his departure until she should have made
her public entry into the capital." [420]

On retiring to his closet the King declared to one or two of his
confidential friends, as he had already done on former occasions when
the same question had been mooted, that the actual cause of the
repugnance which he felt to accede to the wishes of the Queen arose from
a firm conviction that her coronation would cost him his life, and that
he should never leave Paris in safety, as his enemies could only hope to
triumph by depriving him of existence.[421]

"Assured