ll the demonstrations of complacency and
good understanding that the case required, whatever portion of
indignation or malice he might conceal in his heart. Neither was
Elizabeth a novice in the arts of feigning; and even without the
promptings of those tender regrets which accompany a sacrifice extorted
by reason from inclination, she would have been careful, by every
manifestation of friendship and esteem, to smooth over the affront which
her change of purpose had compelled her to put upon the brother and heir
of so potent a monarch as the king of France.

Shortly after his return to the continent, the duke of Anjou lost at
once his reputation, and his hopes of an independent principality, in an
unprincipled and abortive attempt on the liberties of the provinces
which had chosen him as their protector; and his death, which soon
followed, brings to a conclusion this long and mortifying chapter,
occupied with the follies of the wise. It is worth observing, that
appearances in this affair were kept up to the last: the English
ambassador refrained from giving in his official letters any particulars
of the last illness of Monsieur, lest he should aggravate the grief of
her majesty; and the king of France, in defiance of some established
rules of court precedence and etiquette, admitted this minister to pay
his compliments of condolence before all others, professedly because he
represented that princess who best loved his brother.

Bohun ends his minute description of "the habit of queen Elizabeth in
public and private" with a passage proper to complete this portion of
her history. "The coming of the duke d'Alencon opened a way to a more
free way of living, and relaxed very much the old severe form of
discipline. The queen danced often then, and omitted no sort of
recreation, pleasing conversation, or variety of delights for his
satisfaction. At the same time, the plenty of good dishes, pleasant
wines, fragrant ointments and perfumes, dances, masks, and variety of
rich attire, were all taken up and used to show him how much he was
honored. There were then acted comedies and tragedies with much cost and
splendor. When these things had once been entertained, the courtiers
were never more to be reclaimed from them, and they could not be
satiated or wearied with them. But when Alencon was once dismissed and
gone, the queen herself left off these diversions, and betook herself as
before to the care of her kingdom, and both by e