aining daily
more influence over the mind of the king. With a voice of singular
melody, a brilliant eye, a figure as graceful and elastic as that of a
fairy, and with words of wonderful wisdom flowing, as it were,
instinctively from her lips, she seemed effectually and almost
unconsciously to have enthralled the king. All his previous passions
were boyish and ephemeral. But Mary was very different from any other
lady of the court. Her depth of feeling, her pensive yet cheerful
temperament, and her full-souled sympathy in all that was truly noble
in conduct and character, astonished and engrossed the susceptible
monarch.

The Duchess of Savoy had a daughter, Marguerite, whom she wished to
have become the wife of the French king. The princess was by birth of
the highest rank, being a descendant of Henry IV. The duchess sent as
an envoy a young Piedmontese count to treat secretly with the cardinal
for the marriage of the king with the Princess Marguerite. The count
was unsuccessful. It was quite evident that Mazarin was intending to
secure the marriage of the king with his niece.

The proud queen, Anne of Austria, became greatly alarmed. She mortally
offended the cardinal by declaring to him that nothing should induce
her to consent to such a degradation of her son as to permit his
marriage with the niece of the cardinal. She declared that in such an
event she herself would head an insurrection against the king, and
that the whole of France would revolt both against him and his
minister. These bitter words ever after rankled in the bosom of the
cardinal.

The queen summoned a secret assembly of the cabinet, and put to them
the question whether the marriage of her son without her consent would
be a valid one. The unanimous decision was in the negative. She then
had this decision carefully drawn up, and made effectual arrangements
to have it registered by the Parliament, should the king secretly
marry Mary Mancini.

The cardinal now found himself compelled to abandon his ambitious
hopes for his niece, and opened again negotiations with Spain for the
hand of the Infanta Maria Theresa, and with the court of Savoy for the
Princess Marguerite. The Spanish marriage would terminate the war. The
union with Savoy would invest France with new powers for its vigorous
prosecution.

Every day the attachment of the king to Mary Mancini became more
undisguised. She guided his reading; she taught him the Italian
language; she intro