e had
led her to regret that she was the wife of the king, that she might
marry the Duke of Buckingham, did not deem it possible that her son
could stoop so low as to marry any one who was not of royal blood. She
therefore regarded without much uneasiness his desperate flirtations,
while she was scanning the courts of Europe in search of an alliance
which would add to the power and the renown of her son.

One of the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian girl by the name of
Olympia Mancini, was among the first to whom the boy-king of fifteen
became specially attached. Olympia was very beautiful, and her
personal fascinations were rivaled by her mental brilliance, wit, and
tact. She was by nature and education a thorough coquette, amiable and
endearing to an unusual degree. She had a sister a little older than
herself, who was also extremely beautiful, who had recently become the
Duchess of Mercoeur. Etiquette required that in the balls which the
king attended every evening he should recognize the rank of the
duchess by leading her out first in the dance. After this, he devoted
himself exclusively, for the remainder of the evening, to Olympia.

It will be remembered that Henrietta, the widowed queen of Charles
II., who was daughter of Henry IV. and sister of Louis XIII., was then
residing in France. She had no pecuniary means of her own, and,
chagrined and humiliated, was a pensioner upon the bounty of the
impoverished French court. Henrietta had with her a very pretty
daughter, eleven years of age. Being the granddaughter of Henry IV.
and daughter of Charles II., she was entitled, through the purity of
her royal blood, to the highest consideration in the etiquette of the
court. But the mother and the daughter, from their poverty and their
misfortunes, were precluded from any general participation in the
festivities of the palace.

The queen, Anne of Austria, on one occasion, gave a private ball in
honor of these unfortunate guests in her own apartments. None were
invited but a few of her most intimate friends. Henrietta attended
with her daughter, who bore her mother's name. There are few
situations more painful than that of poor relatives visiting their
more prosperous friends, who in charity condescend to pay them some
little attention. The young Henrietta was a fragile and timid girl,
who keenly felt the embarrassment of her situation. As, with her face
suffused with blushes, and her eyes moistened with the confli