legate, in the presence of his royal host,
of the Dukes of Mantua and Bracciano, the Princes Juan and Antonio de
Medicis, and the Sieur de Bellegarde, announced to the young Queen the
entire satisfaction of the Sovereign-Pontiff at the union upon which he
was about to pronounce a blessing: to which assurance she replied with
grace and dignity.

On the morrow a high mass was celebrated by the Cardinal in the presence
of the whole Court; and during its solemnization he was seated under a
canopy of cloth of gold at the right-hand side of the altar, where a
chair had been prepared for him upon a platform raised three steps above
the floor. He had no sooner taken his place, than the Duc de Bellegarde,
approaching the Princess (who occupied a similar seat of honour,
together with her uncle, at the opposite side of the shrine), led her to
the right hand of the legate; the Grand Duke at the same time placing
himself upon his left, and presenting to his Eminence the procuration by
which he was authorized to espouse his niece in the name of the King.
The document was then transferred to two of the attendant prelates, by
whom it was read aloud; and subsequently the authority given by the
Pope for the solemnization of the marriage was, in like manner, made
public. The remainder of the nuptial service was then performed amid
perpetual salvos of artillery. In the evening a splendid ball took place
at the palace, followed by a banquet, at which the new Queen occupied
the upper seat, having on her right the legate of his Holiness, the Duke
of Mantua, and the Grand Duke her uncle, who, in homage to her superior
rank, ceded to her the place of honour; and on her left, the Duchesses
of Mantua, Tuscany, and Bracciano; the Duke of Bracciano acting as
equerry, and Don Juan, the brother of the Grand Duke, as cup-bearer.

The four following days were passed in a succession of festivities:
hunting-parties, jousts, tiltings at the ring, racing, and every other
description of manly sport occupying the hours of daylight, while the
nights were devoted to balls and ballets, in which the Florentine
nobility vied with their foreign visitors in every species of profusion
and magnificence. Among other amusements, a comedy in five acts was
represented, on which the outlay was stated to have amounted to the
enormous sum of sixty thousand crowns.

At the close of the Court festivals, the Cardinal Aldobrandini took his
leave of the distinguished party, an