which the Queen was pleased thus to display.
Her blue eyes, blended with green, were large and regular, and her
vermilion mouth had that underlip of the princesses of Austria, somewhat
prominent and slightly cleft, in the form of a cherry, which may still
be marked in all the female portraits of this time, whose painters
seemed to have aimed at imitating the Queen's mouth, in order to please
the women of her suite, whose desire was, no doubt, to resemble her.

The black dress then adopted by the court, and of which the form was
even fixed by an edict, set off the ivory of her arms, bare to the
elbow, and ornamented with a profusion of lace, which flowed from her
loose sleeves. Large pearls hung in her ears and from her girdle. Such
was the appearance of the Queen at this moment. At her feet, upon two
velvet cushions, a boy of four years old was playing with a little
cannon, which he was assiduously breaking in pieces. This was the
Dauphin, afterward Louis XIV. The Duchesse Marie de Mantua was seated on
her right hand upon a stool. The Princesse de Guemenee, the Duchesse de
Chevreuse, and Mademoiselle de Montbazon, Mesdemoiselles de Guise, de
Rohan, and de Vendome, all beautiful and brilliant with youth, were
behind her, standing. In the recess of a window, Monsieur, his hat under
his arm, was talking in a low voice with a man, stout, with a red face
and a steady and daring eye. This was the Duc de Bouillon. An officer
about twenty-five years of age, well-formed, and of agreeable presence,
had just given several papers to the Prince, which the Duc de Bouillon
appeared to be explaining to him.

De Thou, after having saluted the Queen, who said a few words to him,
approached the Princesse de Guemenee, and conversed with her in an
undertone, with an air of affectionate intimacy, but all the while
intent upon his friend's interest. Secretly trembling lest he should
have confided his destiny to a being less worthy of him than he wished,
he examined the Princess Marie with the scrupulous attention, the
scrutinizing eye of a mother examining the woman whom her son has
selected for his bride--for he thought that Marie could not be
altogether a stranger to the enterprise of Cinq-Mars. He saw with
dissatisfaction that her dress, which was extremely elegant, appeared
to inspire her with more vanity than became her on such an occasion. She
was incessantly rearranging upon her forehead and her hair the rubies
which ornamented her h