attended by a suite of between four and five hundred of the
principal nobles. The arrival of the Duchesse de Lorraine and the
Cardinal de Gonzaga[120] gave a new impetus to the gaiety of the royal
circle, while their sumptuous reception at the palace induced new
outlay and new rivalry among the courtiers.[121]

It was in the midst of this splendid dissipation that the Regent
received tidings of the death of the Duc de Mayenne, a loss which, from
the good understanding recently established between herself and that
Prince, was of serious importance to her authority; while the event
produced a still more painful impression from the fact that his wife,
Henrietta of Savoy, had died of grief a few days subsequently, and that
they had been carried to the grave together.

The next news which reached the Court was that of the demise of
Marguerite of Austria, Queen of Spain; an event which, from the recent
treaty concluded between the two countries, had become doubly
interesting to France. This Princess, who was the daughter of Charles,
Archduke of Gratz, Duke of Styria and Carinthia, and of Marie of
Bavaria, had become the wife of Philip III in November 1599; and had
left four sons, viz. Philip, Charles, Ferdinand, and Alfonso; and two
daughters, Anne and Marguerite, the former of whom was promised to
Louis XIII.

Other and more personal interests sufficed, nevertheless, to dry the
tears of the Queen-mother, as at this period the Duchesse de Lorraine
explained the purport of her visit; which, it is asserted, was to induce
her royal niece to redeem the pledge given by her deceased husband that
the Dauphin should espouse the Princesse de Lorraine, who would bring
as her dowry to the young King the duchies of Lorraine and Bar. Marie
was, however, too deeply compromised with Spain as well as with the Pope
and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, both of whom were earnest to effect the
completion of that alliance, to follow up a policy which could not but
have proved much more beneficial to the French nation; while the Conde
de Fuentes, who immediately suspected the purpose of Madame de Lorraine,
loudly and arrogantly asserted that the French King could not have two
wives; that his marriage with the Infanta was concluded; and that his
sovereign was not to be cheated with impunity.[122]

Oppressed by this double weight of regret and anxiety, Marie and her
Court returned to the Louvre; but her grief was still fated to be
fearfully increased,