ong ceased to
dissemble their dislike; and who were consequently overjoyed to oppose
any undertaking to which the adverse party was pledged.

The two former ladies, who were the most confidential friends of the
young Queen, found little difficulty in exciting her alarm, and in
inducing her to assist them in their endeavours to thwart a marriage by
which, as they asserted, her own personal interests were threatened; nor
did they scruple to remind her that in the event of the King's demise,
an occurrence which his feeble constitution and frequent indisposition
rendered far from improbable, it was necessary for her own future
welfare that the heir-presumptive to the Crown should remain unmarried
as long as possible.

"What must be your fate, Madame," they insidiously urged, "should his
Majesty die without issue? Should you be willing to retire to a cloister
while Mademoiselle de Montpensier took your place upon the throne? Or,
even supposing that the King survives, and that you continue childless
while the Prince becomes the father of a son, whom all France will
regard as its future sovereign, how will you be able to brook the
comparative insignificance to which you must be reduced? You will do
well to consider these things; and to remember that, in the event of
your widowhood, your interest requires that the successor of your
present consort should be in a position to secure to you the same
station as that which you now hold."

These artful representations produced the desired effect upon the mind
of Anne of Austria, who, alike haughty and vain, could not brook to
anticipate any diminution of her dignity; and she accordingly lost no
time in impressing upon Louis the danger to which he would expose
himself by allowing his brother to form an alliance that could not fail
to balance his own power in the kingdom. Naturally jealous and
distrustful, the King listened eagerly to her reasoning; and while the
young Prince continued to pay his court each day more assiduously to
the noble and wealthy heiress, the adverse faction, under the sanction
of the sovereign, were labouring no less zealously to contravene his
views. In conjunction with the Queen, there were not wanting several
individuals who, moreover, pointed out to the monarch that should Gaston
be permitted to accomplish the contemplated marriage, he would be thus
enabled to gain over the still existing leaders of the League, and the
party of the Prince de Conde, who, a