reat ambition was to see each of her daughters
upon a throne, and she had accordingly entered into a negotiation with
the English monarch for effecting a marriage between the younger
Princess and Henry, Prince of Wales, who was about to be betrothed to
the Princess of Savoy. She was the more encouraged to hope for the
success of this proposal as James had already been a candidate for the
hand of her elder daughter; nor was she deterred by the knowledge that
the Grand Duke of Tuscany[152] had offered one of his sisters, with an
enormous dowry, to the British Prince.[153]

So eager, indeed, was Marie de Medicis to effect this alliance for the
Princesse Christine, that the English Ambassador did not hesitate to
declare to his Government that from the manner in which the affair had
been urged upon him by M. de Villeroy, he felt a conviction that his
royal master might conclude the treaty of marriage whenever he
considered it expedient to do so, and might moreover make whatever
conditions he thought proper.

While the negotiations were still pending, however, the lamentable death
of the high-spirited and promising young Prince terminated at once the
struggle for his hand; and Marie de Medicis, to her undisguised regret,
found herself unable to realize one of her most cherished hopes.

On the 1st of November the Comte de Soissons, who was suddenly attacked
by scarlet fever while still engaged in projects of ambition and
revenge, also breathed his last; an event which was destined to effect a
complete change in the aspect of the Court. By his decease the
governments of Dauphiny and Normandy, as well as the appointment of
Grand Master of the King's Household, became vacant; and four-and-twenty
hours had not elapsed before as many claimants presented themselves,
eager to secure these coveted honours. The Prince had, however, left an
infant son, to whom the Queen-Regent immediately transferred both the
government of Dauphiny and the place at Court recently held by his
father. As regarded Normandy, she resolved to retain it in her own
hands, and to appoint a lieutenant-governor to whom she could confide
the command of the province; but she had no sooner declared her
intention than she was met by the expostulations of M. de Conti, who
reminded her that having formerly ceded the government of Dauphiny to
the Comte de Soissons at her request, he considered himself entitled to
succeed to that which had now become available by his de