proportions. She possessed the whitest and most delicate
hand that ever made an imperious gesture. Her eyes were of matchless
beauty, easily dilated, and of extraordinary transparency. Her small
and ruddy mouth looked like an opening rose-bud. Long and silky hair,
of a lovely shade of auburn, gave to the face it surrounded the
sparkling complexion of a blonde, and the animation of a brunette.[A]

[Footnote A: Louis XIV. et son Siecle.]

The marriage was not a happy one. Louis XIII. was not a man of any
mental or physical attractions. He was cruel, petulant, and jealous.
The king had a younger brother, Gaston, duke of Anjou. He was a young
man of joyous spirits, social, frank, a universal favorite. His moody,
taciturn brother did not love him. Anne did. She could not but enjoy
his society. Wounded by the coldness and neglect of her husband, it is
said that she was not unwilling, by rather a free exhibition of the
fascinations of her person and her mind, to win the admiration of
Gaston. She hoped thus to inspire the king with a more just
appreciation of her merits.

Louis XIII., at the time of his marriage, was a mere boy fourteen
years of age. His father had died when he was nine years old. He was
left under the care of his mother, Mary de Medicis, as regent. Anne of
Austria was a maturely developed and precocious child of eleven years
when she gave her hand to the boy-king of France. Not much discretion
could have been expected of two such children, exposed to the
idleness, the splendors, and the corruption of a court.

Anne was vain of her beauty, naturally coquettish, and very romantic
in her views of life. It is said that the queen dowager, wishing to
prevent Anne from gaining much influence over the mind of the king,
did all she could to lure her into flirtations and gallantries, which
alienated her from her husband. For this purpose she placed near her
person Madame Chevreuse, an intriguing woman, alike renowned for wit,
beauty, and unscrupulousness.

Quite a desperate flirtation arose between Anne and little Gaston, who
was but nine years of age. Gaston, whom the folly of the times
entitled Duke of Anjou, hated Louis, and delighted to excite his
jealousy and anger by his open and secret manifestation of love for
the beautiful Anne. The king's health failed. He became increasingly
languid, morose, emaciate. Anne, young as she was, was physically a
fully developed woman of voluptuous beauty. The undisguised al