aid: 'Sir, I stand upon mine own feet. I have no helps of
art. Thus high I am, and am neither higher nor lower.'

Henrietta Maria was dark, with black eyes and dark-brown hair, and was
very quick and bright, and Charles loved her always to the end of his
life.

After a time Henrietta was given Somerset House, a magnificent house in
the Strand, for herself, and all her French attendants lived there with
her. Perhaps Charles felt that the old palace at Whitehall was hardly
fit for this bright little French woman, and perhaps it annoyed him to
hear all the French people chattering about his own Court. Somerset
House had been built by an uncle of Edward VI., the Duke of Somerset,
who was such a greedy man that he had pulled down numbers of churches
in order to take the stone of which they were built to make his own vast
mansion. The Duke never lived there, for before it was finished he was
imprisoned in the Tower, and then beheaded. When Henrietta was there the
furniture was very magnificent and rich. We are told that one of the bed
coverlets, of embroidered satin, was worth L1,000!

This Somerset House was pulled down when George III. was King, and
another great house called by the same name was built instead. This one
is still standing, and in it there are offices belonging to the
Government. In one part are all the wills that people have left when
they died, and if anyone wants to see a particular will he can go there
and see it if he pays a shilling.

One day when Queen Henrietta Maria lived in old Somerset House, Charles
came and told her he was going to send all her French attendants back to
France except her lady's-maid and one other, for the French people were
saying things against the King and making mischief. Henrietta was much
grieved, but she had to obey the King, so she sent them back to France.
Long years after the death of her husband, when her son was King, after
many terrible wars, Henrietta once again came back to London and lived
at her old home. Not far from Somerset House, close by Charing Cross
Station, was another great house in the Strand called York House. I
spoke of this before when I told you about the fine old water-gate still
standing. That water-gate belonged to a handsome man called the Duke of
Buckingham. Buckingham had been a great favourite with the old King,
James I., and he had travelled abroad with Charles when he was Prince of
Wales. Charles loved him very dearly, though he knew he w