n
a heavy knot, supported by long bodkins tipped with jewels, low in her
neck behind; and above all, with that peculiar expression spread over
her whole person which is occasionally to be remarked in individuals of
that exceptional organization which appears to be the lot of such as are
predestined to misery.

Not a Princess of the Blood, not a Duchess of the realm, but had a smile
and a courteous and eager word to bestow upon this apparently
insignificant personage, at whose signal even the door of the Queen's
private closet, closed against other intruders, opened upon the instant,
as though she alone of all that brilliant galaxy of rank and wealth were
to know no impediment, and to be subjected to no delay.

We have been somewhat prolix in our description of this extraordinary
woman, but we shall be pardoned when we explain that we here give the
portrait of Leonora Galigai, Marquise d'Ancre, the friend, confidante,
and foster-sister of Marie de Medicis.

It is, however, time to return to the festivities to which allusion has
already been made. Among these the most remarkable was a splendid
carousal which took place in the Place Royale, and which is elaborately
described by Bassompierre. The French Kings had originally held their
tourneys, tilts, and passages-at-arms in the Rue St. Antoine, opposite
the palace of the Tournelles; but the unfortunate death of Henri II, who
was killed there by the lance of the Duc de Montgomery, caused the spot
to be abandoned, and they were subsequently transferred to the Place
Royale, which had been built in the ancient park of the same palace.

The lists on the present occasion were two hundred and forty feet in
length, and were surrounded by barriers and platforms arranged in tiers,
and reaching to the first stories of the houses. Facing the lists was
erected the magnificent pavilion destined for their Majesties, which was
richly draped with blue and gold, and surmounted by the great national
standard, upon which the eagles of Austria and the arms of the Medici
were proudly quartered with the _fleurs-de-lis_ of France.

By command of the Queen the lists were held by the Ducs de Guise and de
Nevers and the Marquis de Bassompierre, an honour which cost each of the
individuals thus favoured the enormous sum of fifty thousand crowns; a
fact which is easily understood when it is considered that their retinue
consisted of five hundred persons and two hundred horses, the whole of
whom,