d for a brief while laid to rest. To each and all he appeared
zealous in their several interests, but to each and all he was alike
a traitor.

Nature had been lavish to Concini; his person was well-formed and
graceful, while his countenance beamed with intelligence, and gave
promise of far greater intellect than he in reality possessed. It was
this handsomeness which had inspired Leonora Galigai with a passion
that was destined to be her destruction, for no doubt can be entertained
that had she never become his wife her career might have been one of
happiness and honour; but while Concini, absorbed in his wild schemes of
self-aggrandizement, trampled upon every consideration of honour and
honesty in order to attain his object, Leonora, conscious of her own
want of personal attractions, and loving her husband with a devotion
made up of gratitude and admiration, suffered herself to be overruled by
his vanity and arrogance, and sacrificed her reason and her judgment to
her affection.

The Marechal de Bouillon having failed in his attempt to induce M. de
Conde to revolt against the authority of the Regent, by one of those
sudden transitions of feeling which formed so strange a feature in his
character, next sought to reconcile that Prince and the Duc de Guise,
who were already at feud upon the prerogatives of their rank; and he
began to anticipate a successful issue to his enterprise, when the
ministers, being apprehensive that a good understanding among the
Princes of the Blood would tend to weaken their own influence over the
Regent, gave him to understand that should M. de Conde and the Due de
Guise become firm friends, his personal importance in the country would
be greatly lessened, if not entirely overthrown. This argument was
all-sufficient with the ambitious and intriguing Bouillon, who forthwith
began to slacken in his exertions to restore peace. But these had
already proceeded so far as to render his position extremely
embarrassing; and between his apprehension of sacrificing his own
interest on the one hand, and of incurring suspicion upon the other, he
was somewhat at a loss how to proceed, when the adroit interference of
Concini, who deprecated the coalition of the Princes as much as the
ministers themselves, furnished fresh fuel to the expiring flame, and
widened the chasm between them more hopelessly than ever; and that,
moreover, with such dexterity, that M. de Bouillon never suspected what
friendly hand h