had shown both in speech and by actions,--Madame de Nevers, I
say, approached the bedside, and, to the great astonishment of
all present, who well knew the enmity subsisting betwixt them,
took the Queen's hand, with many low curtseys, and kissed it;
after which, making another curtsey to the very ground, she retired
and rejoined us.

A few months after the Queen's death, the Prince of Navarre, or
rather, as he was then styled, the King, came to Paris in deep
mourning, attended by eight hundred gentlemen, all in mourning
habits. He was received with every honour by King Charles and the
whole Court, and, in a few days after his arrival, our marriage was
solemnised with all possible magnificence; the King of Navarre and
his retinue putting off their mourning and dressing themselves in
the most costly manner. The whole Court, too, was richly attired;
all which you can better conceive than I am able to express.
For my own part, I was set out in a most royal manner; I wore a
crown on my head with the _coet_, or regal close gown of ermine,
and I blazed in diamonds. My blue-coloured robe had a train to it
of four ells in length, which was supported by three princesses.
A platform had been raised, some height from the ground, which
led from the Bishop's palace to the Church of Notre-Dame. It was
hung with cloth of gold; and below it stood the people in throngs
to view the procession, stifling with heat. We were received at
the church door by the Cardinal de Bourbon, who officiated for
that day, and pronounced the nuptial benediction. After this we
proceeded on the same platform to the tribune which separates the
nave from the choir, where was a double staircase, one leading
into the choir, the other through the nave to the church door.
The King of Navarre passed by the latter and went out of church.

But fortune, which is ever changing, did not fail soon to disturb
the felicity of this union. This was occasioned by the wound
received by the Admiral, which had wrought the Huguenots up to
a degree of desperation. The Queen my mother was reproached on
that account in such terms by the elder Pardaillan and some other
principal Huguenots, that she began to apprehend some evil design.
M. de Guise and my brother the King of Poland, since Henri III.
of France, gave it as their advice to be beforehand with the
Huguenots. King Charles was of a contrary opinion. He had a great
esteem for M. de La Rochefoucauld, Teligny, La Noue, and s