le childish petulance and wilfulness of manner, not
unbefitting, she might suppose, a youthful bride, whose rank and age
gave her a right to have her fantasies indulged and attended to. She was
by nature perfectly good-humoured, and if her due share of admiration
and homage (in her opinion a very large one) was duly resigned to her,
no one could possess better temper or a more friendly disposition; but
then, like all despots, the more power that was voluntarily yielded to
her, the more she desired to extend her sway. Sometimes, even when all
her ambition was gratified, she chose to be a little out of health, and
a little out of spirits; and physicians had to toil their wits to invent
names for imaginary maladies, while her ladies racked their imagination
for new games, new head-gear, and new court-scandal, to pass away those
unpleasant hours, during which their own situation was scarce to be
greatly envied. Their most frequent resource for diverting this malady
was some trick or piece of mischief practised upon each other; and
the good Queen, in the buoyancy of her reviving spirits, was, to speak
truth, rather too indifferent whether the frolics thus practised were
entirely befitting her own dignity, or whether the pain which those
suffered upon whom they were inflicted was not beyond the proportion of
pleasure which she herself derived from them. She was confident in her
husband's favour, in her high rank, and in her supposed power to make
good whatever such pranks might cost others. In a word, she gambolled
with the freedom of a young lioness, who is unconscious of the weight of
her own paws when laid on those whom she sports with.

The Queen Berengaria loved her husband passionately, but she feared the
loftiness and roughness of his character; and as she felt herself not
to be his match in intellect, was not much pleased to see that he would
often talk with Edith Plantagenet in preference to herself,
simply because he found more amusement in her conversation, a more
comprehensive understanding, and a more noble cast of thoughts and
sentiments, than his beautiful consort exhibited. Berengaria did
not hate Edith on this account, far less meditate her any harm; for,
allowing for some selfishness, her character was, on the whole, innocent
and generous. But the ladies of her train, sharpsighted in such matters,
had for some time discovered that a poignant jest at the expense of
the Lady Edith was a specific for relieving h