d proceeded to Chambery; but the
Queen lingered with her family until the 13th of the month, upon which
day, accompanied by the Grand-Duchess her aunt, the Duchess of Mantua
her sister, her brother Don Antonio, the Duke of Bracciano, and the
French Ambassador, she set forth upon her journey to her new
kingdom.[99]

Without being strictly beautiful, Marie de Medicis possessed a person at
once pleasing and dignified. All the pride of her Italian blood flashed
from her large dark eye, while the consciousness of her exalted rank
lent a majesty to her deportment which occasionally, however, in moments
of irritation, degenerated into haughtiness. Her intellect was quick and
cultivated, but she was deficient alike in depth of judgment and in
strength of character. Amiable, and even submissive in her intercourse
with her favourites, she was vindictive and tyrannical towards those who
fell under the ban of her displeasure; and with all the unscrupulous
love of intrigue common to her race, she was nevertheless unguarded in
her confidences, unstable in her purposes, and short-sighted in her
policy. In temper she was hot, impatient, and irascible; in temperament,
jealous and exacting; while her vanity and love of power perpetually
made her the tool of those who sought to profit by her defects.

It is probable that throughout the whole of Europe no princess could
have been selected less constituted to make the happiness of a sovereign
who, like Henri IV, had not scrupled to avow to his minister that he
dreaded domestic dissension far more than foreign warfare; but who at
the same time did not hesitate, by his own irregularities, to arouse
all the worst passions in the bosom of an outraged wife.

On the 17th of October the royal bride reached Livorno, where she made
her entry in great pomp, and was received with the most enthusiastic
acclamations; and on the following day she embarked in the state-galley
of the Grand-Duke, one of the most magnificent vessels which had ever
floated upon the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Seventy feet in
length, it was impelled by fifty-four oars, and was richly gilded from
stem to stern; the borders of the poop being inlaid with a profusion of
lapis-lazuli, mother-of-pearl, ivory, and ebony. It was, moreover,
ornamented by twenty large circles of iron interlaced, and studded with
topaz, emeralds, pearls, and other precious stones; while the splendour
of the interior perfectly corresponded with th