l it; and so they returned home greatly edified.

I know that many in France blamed this expense as quite unnecessary.
But the Queen said she had done it to show other nations that
France was not so totally ruined and poverty-stricken by reason
of her recent wars as was supposed; and that, since she was able
to spend so much for frivolity, she would be able to do far more
for affairs of consequence and importance; and that France was
all the more to be esteemed and feared, whether through the sight
of so much wealth and richness, or the spectacle of so great an
array of gentlemen, so brave and adroit at arms--for certainly
there was a goodly number and worthy to be admired. And so it
was for good and sufficient reason that our most Christian Queen
made this splendid festival; for be assured that if she had not
done so, the visitors would have derided us and returned home
with a poor opinion of France.

A third exceedingly fine entertainment was given by her on the
arrival of the Polish envoys in Paris, whom she dined superbly at
the Tuileries; and afterwards in a grand ball-room made especially
for the spectacle and entirely enclosed by a countless number
of torches, she presented the most beautiful ballet ever seen
on earth (if I may say so), which comprised sixteen ladies and
demoiselles who were best suited to it. They appeared in a great
grotto of silver, being seated in niches and clad as though in
vapour about its sides. These sixteen ladies represented the sixteen
provinces of France, with the most melodious music possible; and
after having made, in this grotto, the round of the hall like
a review of troops, giving an opportunity for all to see them,
they descended from the grotto and formed themselves into a little
company fantastically arranged, while an orchestra of thirty violins
discoursed sweet music, and marched to the melody of these violins
by a beautiful dance step, approaching and halting before their
majesties. After this they danced their ballet, so fantastically
invented, with so many turns and convolutions, twinings and
twistings, in which no lady failed to find her own place again,
that all the spectators were amazed at the accuracy and grace of
the evolutions. This unique ballet lasted for at least an hour,
after which the ladies representing, as I have said, the sixteen
provinces advanced to the King, the Queen, the King of Poland,
Monsieur his brother, the King and Queen of Navarre, and othe