g defective, all her features are the same and strongly marked, a
pretty tolerable turn of countenance, set off by a very singular
head-dress; that is, a man's wig, very big, and very much raised in
front; the top of the head is a tissue of hair, and the back has
something of a woman's style of head-dress. Sometimes she also wears a
hat; her bodice, laced behind, crosswise, is made something like our
doublets, her chemise bulging out all round her petticoat, which she
wears rather badly fastened and not over straight. She is always very
much powdered, with a good deal of pomade, and almost never puts on
gloves. She has, at the very least, as much swagger and haughtiness as
the great Gustavus, her father, can have had; she is mighty civil and
coaxing, speaks eight languages, and principally French, as if she had
been born in Paris. She knows as much about it as all our Academy and
the Sorbonne put together, has an admirable knowledge of painting as well
as of everything else, and knows all the intrigues of our court better
than I. In fact, she is quite an extraordinary person." "The king,
though very timid at that time," says Madame de Motteville, "and not at
all well informed, got on so well with this bold, well-informed, and
haughty princess, that, from the first moment, they associated together
with much freedom and pleasure on both sides. It was difficult, when you
had once had a good opportunity of seeing her, and above all of listening
to her, not to forgive all her irregularities, though some of them were
highly blamable." All the court and all Paris made a great fuss about
this queen, who insisted upon going everywhere, even to the French
Academy, where no woman had ever been admitted. Patru thus relates to
one of his friends the story of her visit: "No notice was given until
about eight or nine in the morning of this princess's purpose, so that
some of our body could not receive information in time. M. de Gombault
came without having been advertised; but, as soon as he knew of the
queen's purpose, he went away again, for thou must know that he is wroth
with her because, he having written some verses in which he praised the
great Gustavus, she did not write to him, she who, as thou knowest, has
written to a hundred impertinent apes. I might complain, with far more
reason; but, so long as kings, queens, princes, and princesses do me only
that sort of harm, I shall never complain. The chancellor [Seguier,