France," thinks that Marguerite alludes to Brantome's "Anecdotes" in the
beginning of her first letter, where she says: "I should commend your
work much more were I myself not so much praised in it." (According to
the original: "Je louerois davantage votre oeuvre, si elle ne me louoit
tant.") If so, these letters were addressed to Brantome, and not to the
Baron de la Chataigneraie, as mentioned in the Preface to the French
edition. In Letter I. mention is made of Madame de Dampierre, whom
Marguerite styles the aunt of the person the letter is addressed to. She
was dame d'honneur, or lady of the bedchamber, to the Queen of Henri
III., and Brantome, speaking of her, calls her his aunt. Indeed, it is
not a matter of any consequence to whom these Memoirs were addressed; it
is, however, remarkable that Louis XIV. used the same words to Boileau,
after hearing him read his celebrated epistle upon the famous Passage of
the Rhine; and yet Louis was no reader, and is not supposed to have
adopted them from these Memoirs. The thought is, in reality, fine, but
might easily suggest itself to any other. "Cela est beau," said the
monarch, "et je vous louerois davantage, si vous m'aviez moins loue."
(The poetry is excellent, and I should praise you more had you praised me
less.)]

of the life of Marguerite, written during her before-mentioned retreat,
when she was, as he says ("fille unique maintenant restee, de la noble
maison de France"), the only survivor of her illustrious house. Brantome
praises her excellent beauty in a long string of laboured hyperboles.
Ronsard, the Court poet, has done the same in a poem of considerable
length, wherein he has exhausted all his wit and fancy. From what they
have said, we may collect that Marguerite was graceful in her person and
figure, and remarkably happy in her choice of dress and ornaments to set
herself off to the most advantage; that her height was above the middle
size, her shape easy, with that due proportion of plumpness which gives
an appearance of majesty and comeliness. Her eyes were full, black, and
sparkling; she had bright, chestnut-coloured hair, and a complexion fresh
and blooming. Her skin was delicately white, and her neck admirably well
formed; and this so generally admired beauty, the fashion of dress, in
her time, admitted of being fully displayed.

Such was Queen Marguerite as she is portrayed, with the greatest
luxuriance of colouring, by these authors. To her personal