made of Madame de Dampierre, whom
Marguerite styles the aunt of the person the letter is addressed to. She
was dame d'honneur, or lady of the bedchamber, to the Queen of Henri
III., and Brantome, speaking of her, calls her his aunt. Indeed, it is
not a matter of any consequence to whom these Memoirs were addressed; it
is, however, remarkable that Louis XIV. used the same words to Boileau,
after hearing him read his celebrated epistle upon the famous Passage of
the Rhine; and yet Louis was no reader, and is not supposed to have
adopted them from these Memoirs. The thought is, in reality, fine, but
might easily suggest itself to any other. "Cela est beau," said the
monarch, "et je vous louerois davantage, si vous m'aviez moins loue."
(The poetry is excellent, and I should praise you more had you praised me
less.)]

He has given anecdotes of the life of Marguerite, written during her
before-mentioned retreat, when she was, as he says ("fille unique
maintenant restee, de la noble maison de France"), the only survivor of
her illustrious house. Brantome praises her excellent beauty in a long
string of laboured hyperboles. Ronsard, the Court poet, has done the
same in a poem of considerable length, wherein he has exhausted all his
wit and fancy. From what they have said, we may collect that Marguerite
was graceful in her person and figure, and remarkably happy in her
choice of dress and ornaments to set herself off to the most advantage;
that her height was above the middle size, her shape easy, with that due
proportion of plumpness which gives an appearance of majesty and
comeliness. Her eyes were full, black, and sparkling; she had bright,
chestnut-coloured hair, and a complexion fresh and blooming. Her skin
was delicately white, and her neck admirably well formed; and this so
generally admired beauty, the fashion of dress, in her time, admitted of
being fully displayed.

Such was Queen Marguerite as she is portrayed, with the greatest
luxuriance of colouring, by these authors. To her personal charms were
added readiness of wit, ease and gracefulness of speech, and great
affability and courtesy of manners. This description of Queen Marguerite
cannot be dismissed without observing, if only for the sake of keeping
the fashion of the present times with her sex in countenance, that,
though she had hair, as has been already described, becoming her, and
sufficiently ornamental in itself, yet she occasionally called in th