ge ceremonies.

Gaston d'Anjou had attained his seventeenth year; and although of more
robust temperament than the King, he was constitutionally indolent and
undecided. His after-history proves him to have been alike an incapable
diplomatist, a timid leader, and a false and fickle friend; but as yet
no suspicion of his courage or good faith had been entertained by any
party, and he was consequently the centre around which rallied every
cabal in turn. He was moreover, as we have already stated, the favourite
son of the Queen-mother, who saw in him not only a cherished child but
also a political ally. By securing the support of Gaston, Marie believed
that she should be the more readily enabled to maintain her influence,
and to protect herself against any future aggression on the part of
Louis, with whom she felt her apparent reconciliation to be at once
hollow and unstable; and as the vain and vacillating character of the
Prince readily lent itself to the projects of each cabal in succession,
so long as it did not interfere with his pleasures, every party in turn
believed him to be devoted to its especial interests, and calculated
upon his support whenever the struggle should commence. Thus, while
himself jealous of Louis, whose crown he envied, Gaston d'Anjou was no
less an object of distrust and terror to the King; who, whatever may
have been his other defects, was never found deficient in personal
courage; and who could not consequently comprehend that with every
inclination to play the conspirator, the young Prince was utterly
incapable of guiding or even supporting any party powerful and honest
enough openly to declare itself.

Under these circumstances, however, it is not surprising that the
marriage of the heir-apparent should have excited the most absorbing
interest not only at the French Court, but throughout all Europe. The
health of Louis XIII continued feeble and uncertain; he rallied slowly
and painfully after each successive attack; and since the visit of the
Duke of Buckingham to Paris his repugnance to Anne of Austria had become
more marked than ever; while the young Queen in her turn resented his
neglect with augmented bitterness, and loudly complained of the
injustice to which she should be subjected were the children of Gaston
d'Anjou to inherit the throne of France. The Princes of the Blood
supported Anne in this objection; for neither Conde nor the Comte de
Soissons could, as a natural consequence, r