interests, and remember them by name. And that he heeded her
advice was seen later, for, through this instruction, the King
was thoroughly informed of the gentlemen of rank and honourable
race who resided in his kingdom.

These detractors have also said that she never loved her people.
This does not appear. Did she ever levy as many taxes, subsidies,
imposts and other duties, while she directed the Government during
the minority of her children, as has been levied since in a single
year? Have they ever discoverd any hoards of money here or in
the banks of Italy, as has been believed? On the contrary, after
her death they never found a solitary coin; and I have heard
some of her creditors and ladies say that after her death she
was found to be in debt to the sum of eight thousand crowns, the
wages of her ladies, gentlemen, and officers of her household
for an entire year, and the income of a year spent in advance;
so that, some months before her death, her bankers remonstrated
with her over this deficit. But she laughed and said that one
must praise God for everything and enjoy it while one was alive.

This, then, was her avarice, and the great wealth which she is
said to have amassed. She never saved anything, for she had a
heart wholly noble, liberal and magnificent, in every way the equal
of that of her great-uncle, the Pope Leo, and of the celebrated
Lorenzo de Medici. She spent and gave everything away; erecting
buildings or applying it to memorable spectacles; and taking
delight in giving entertainments to her people or Court, such as
festivals, balls, dances, combats, and tourneys, three specially
superb events being given during her lifetime. The first was
at Fontainebleau, a carnival after the first troubles, where
there were tourneys, and breaking of lances, and combats at the
barrier; in brief, all sorts of joustings, followed by a comedy
on the subject of the beautiful Genevra of Ariosto which was
played by Madame d'Angouleme and her most beautiful and virtuous
princesses and ladies and demoiselles of her Court, who certainly
played it very well, so that nothing more beautiful was ever
seen. The next was at Bayonne, at the interview between the Queen
and her daughter, the Queen of Spain, where the magnificence was
such in all things that the Spaniards, who are very disdainful
of other countries besides their own, swore that they had never
seen anything more splendid, and that their King could hardly
riva