tained it, Henry
was, however, at once dissuaded by his minister; who, less blinded by
passion than himself, instantly recognised its enormity when
proportioned to the offence which it was intended to punish; and
consequently he did not hesitate to represent the odium which so unjust
a measure must call down upon the head of the King.[173] The Queen,
whose irritation had reached its climax, was less easily persuaded; or
the astute Concini, who was ever daring where his personal fortunes
might be benefited, sacrificed his royal mistress to his own interests;
for we find it recorded that some time subsequently, when Madame de
Verneuil was residing at her hotel in Paris, the Florentine favourite
privately informed the monarch that Marie had engaged some persons on
whom she could rely, to insult the Marquise; upon which Henry, after
expressing his thanks for the communication, caused the favourite to
leave the city under a strong escort.[174]

Had the King been less unscrupulously inconstant, there is, however, no
doubt that Marie de Medicis, from the strict propriety of her conduct to
the last, and under every provocation, would ultimately have become an
attached and devoted wife. Her ambition was satisfied, and her heart
interested, in her maternal duties; but the open and unblushing
licentiousness with which Henry pursued his numerous and frequently
ignoble intrigues, irritated her naturally excitable temper, and
consequently tended to throw her more completely into the power of the
ambitious Italians by whom she was surrounded; among whom the most
influential was Madame de Concini, a woman of firm mind, engaging
manners, and strong national prejudices, who, in following the fortunes
of her illustrious foster-sister, had deceived herself into the belief
that they would be almost without a cloud; and it is therefore probable
that a disappointment in this expectation, which, moreover, involved her
own personal interests, rendered her bitter in her judgment of the
_debonnaire_ and reckless monarch who showed himself so indifferent to
the attractions of her idolized mistress.

The subsequent ingratitude of Marie, indeed, only tends to increase the
admiration of a dispassionate critic for the ill-requited Leonora; to
whom it would appear, after a close analysis of her character, that
ample justice has never yet been done; for ambitious as she was, it is
certain that this unfortunate woman ever sought the welfare of the
Quee