Paris, that hitherto had
set the fashion to the world, stared mouth-agape, dazzled by the
splendour of this superb and scintillating ambassador.
Another, by betraying consciousness of the figure that he cut,
might have made himself ridiculous. But Buckingham's insolent
assurance was proof against that peril. Supremely self-satisfied,
he was conscious only that what he did could not be better done,
and he ruffled it with an air of easy insouciance, as if in all
this costly display there was nothing that was not normal. He
treated with princes, and even with the gloomy Louis XIII., as
with equals; and, becoming more and more intoxicated with his
very obvious success, he condescended to observe approvingly the
fresh beauty of the young Queen.
Anne of Austria, then in her twenty-fourth year, was said to be
one of the most beautiful women in Europe. She was of a good
height and carriage, slight, and very gracefully built, of a
ravishing fairness of skin and hair, whilst a look of wistfulness
had come to invest with an indefinable tenderness her splendid
eyes. Her childless marriage to the young King of France, which
had endured now for ten years, had hardly been successful.
Gloomy, taciturn, easily moved to suspicion, and difficult to
convince of error, Louis XIII.
Pages:
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235