leisure upon the vices
of the great.

No mortification could, however, equal that of the Queen; who, having
felt assured of the ruin of her rival, had incautiously betrayed her
exultation in a manner better suited to a jealous wife than to an
indignant sovereign; and who, when she became apprised of the
reconciliation of the King with his wily mistress, expressed herself
with so much warmth upon his wilful blindness, that a fortnight elapsed
before they met again.

Nothing could be more ill-judged upon the part of Marie than this
violence, as by estranging the King from herself she gave ample
opportunity to the Marquise to resume her empire over his mind. It
nevertheless appears certain that although he resented the sarcasms of
the Queen, he was less the dupe of Madame de Verneuil than those about
him imagined; he was fascinated, but not convinced; and it is probable
that had Marie de Medicis at this moment sufficiently controlled her
feelings to remain neuter, she might, for a time at least, have retained
her truant husband under the spell of her own attractions. Such,
however, was not the case; and between his suspicion of being deceived
by his mistress, and his irritation at being openly taunted by his wife,
the King, who shrank with morbid terror from domestic discomfort,
instead of finding repose in the privacy of his own hearth, even while
he was anxious to shake off the trammels by which he had been so long
fettered, and to abandon a _liaison_ which had ceased to inspire him
with confidence, only sought to escape by transferring his somewhat
exhausted affections to a new object. The struggle was, however, a
formidable one; for although the Marquise had forfeited his good
opinion, she had not lost her powers of fascination; and she so well
knew how to use them, that, despite his better reason, the sensual
monarch still remained her slave.

Thus his life became at this period one of perpetual worry and
annoyance. Marie, irritated by what she justly considered as a culpable
weakness and want of dignity on the part of her royal consort, persisted
in exhibiting her resentment, and in loading the favourite with every
mark of contempt and obloquy; while Madame de Verneuil, in her turn,
renewed her assertions of the illegality of the Queen's marriage, and
the consequent illegitimacy of the Dauphin. The effect of such a feud
may be readily imagined: the Court soon became divided into two distinct
factions; and those a