ever holding up to him the
glory and obligations of kingship, at the same time herself entering,
with all the vitality of her extraordinary nature, into his favourite
pastimes. We know that in one or other of her many residences near
Chinon or Loches, she and the king often spent the evening playing
piquet or chess (the latter being his favourite game), and then, on
the morrow, rode forth together to the chase. So the days were passed
in work and simple outdoor pleasures, Agnes taking no recognised
public part in the king's life, but devoting herself heart and soul to
the task she had in hand. But besides these relaxations of peace,
there was also the reality of war; for the war still lingered on,
though feebly. The English had lost their ally, the Duke of Burgundy,
as well as Bedford, the able Regent, and there was no fit man to take
the latter's place. Paris opened her gates to Charles in 1436, and in
the following year Charles, after having reigned for fourteen years,
made his first State entry into the capital of his kingdom, mounted on
a white charger, the sign of sovereignty. In 1444 a treaty was
concluded at Tours with the English, and, to make the compact doubly
sure, Margaret of Anjou, a niece of the king, was married to Henry the
Sixth of England. For about a month the Court and its princely
visitors gave themselves up to fetes and pageants, and it was during
this time of rejoicing that the position of Agnes was officially
recognised. She was made lady-in-waiting to the queen, and took a
prominent part throughout the festival. Charles gave her the royal
castle of Beaute, on the Marne, near the Bois de Vincennes, "le plus
bel chastel et joly et le mieux assis qui fust en l'Isle de France,"
desiring, as was said, that she should be "Dame de Beaute de nom comme
de fait." From the time of her public recognition she appeared with
the king at all the brilliant festivities celebrated in honour of
treaties and marriages. She also sat in the royal council, a position
which, as a king's mistress, she was the first to occupy, though we
know that Henri II. took no step without first conferring with Diane
de Poitiers, and that Madame de Maintenon sat in Louis the
Fourteenth's privy council.

The change which came over France after the Treaty of Tours was
marvellous, alike in its extent and its rapidity. Commerce was again
resumed between the two nations; men and women once again ventured
without the city walls, to breath