e sad conclusion that she was too fat, had staring eyes and
bad manners, and was very stubborn.

After the birth of a son and heir, who later became Louis XIII., the
king neglected his wife to such an extent that she felt little sorrow at
the time of his assassination. Then it was, as queen-regent, that Marie
for the first time entered actively into political life; but her ability
in this sphere of action was only moderate, and she was soon the centre
of much quarrel and contention, wherein the unyielding feudal nobility
and the Protestants figured largely as disturbing causes. In the midst
of these troublous times, the queen had an invaluable assistant in the
person of Eleanora Galigai, her foster-sister, whose husband, Concino
Concini, a Florentine, had come to France in the suite of Marie, and had
subsequently risen to a position of influence in the court. Eventually,
he became the Marechal d'Ancre, and his wife was spoken of as _la
Marechale_ or _la Galigai_, for so great was the extent of Eleanora's
control over the queen that she was one of the most conspicuous women in
all Europe at that time. Gradually, she was criticised on account of the
way in which she used her power, and it was alleged that she was
overmuch in the company of divers magicians and astrologers who had been
brought from Italy, and that the black art alone was responsible for her
success. These accusations finally aroused such public hostility that,
after a trial which was a travesty upon justice, Eleanora was soon
condemned to death, on the charge of having unduly influenced the queen
by means of magic philters. Eleanora went to her death bravely, saying
with dignity to her accusers: "The philter which I have used is the
influence which every strong mind possesses, naturally, over every
weaker one."

Not long after this Florentine queen of France was playing her part in
public affairs, all Europe was surprised by another woman, whose actions
were without parallel and whose case seems to be the opposite of the one
just cited. Marie de' Medici left Italy to become a queen, and now a
queen is seen to abdicate that she may go to Rome to live. Christine,
Queen of Sweden, a most enlightened woman and the daughter of the great
Gustavus Adolphus who had brought about the triumph of the Protestant
arms in Germany, relinquished her royal robes in the year 1654,
announced her conversion to Catholicism, and finally went to Rome, where
she ended her days.