Lives of the Queens of England, from the Norman Conquest, Vol. 8: With Anecdotes of Their Courts, Now First Published from Official Records and Other Authentic Documents, Private As Well As Public (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Lives of the Queens of England, From the Norman Conquest, Vol. 8: With Anecdotes of Their Courts, Now First Published From Official Records and Other Authentic Documents, Private as Well as Public

This mingled softness and gallantry reassured the weeping girl; her dark eyes brightened anew, and she soon fell into familiar discourse with the royal lover. In the course of conversation, he seemed sur prised that she appeared so much taller than she had been represented to him for, finding she reached to his shoulder, he glanced downward at her feet, to see whether her height had not been increased by artificial means. With her natural quickness of perception, she anticipated his thoughts, and, showing him the shoes she wore, she said to him in French, Sire, I stand upon mine own feet; I have no help from art; thus high am I, neither higher nor lower.

At the conclusion of this interview, the young queen presented all her French servants to his majesty, recommending them to him particularly by name. Madame St. George, the daughter of madame de Mengist, the queen's governess, was the principal of her ladies, and to her, king Charles took a very early antipathy.n That beautiful coquette, the duchess de Chevreuse, was of the party, but she seems to have arrived in the quality of guest; she was the wife of the king's cousin, the duke de Chevreuse, ' who had represented his royal person by proxy at the recent marriage ceremony, and completed his trust by escorting the royal bride to England. The absence of madame de Chevreuse' from Paris was. In fact, a species of banishment inflicted on her as penance for some of the vagaries with which, from the pure love of mischief, she had been bewildering all the heads and hearts she could captivate at the French court. Nor did she lack English admirers, for the wooing ambassador, lord Kensington, was passionately in love with her. Charles I. Received the duke de Chevreuse graciously, and treated him as a kinsman; he conducted him himself to the presence-chamber, in Dover castle, where he found the fair duchess of Chevreuse, and bade her welcome.'

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