remained in her service, had repeatedly assured her that she need be under no apprehension of bearing daughters, as she was predestined by Heaven to become the mother of three princes only; and after having, with her usual superstition, placed implicit faith in the flattering prophecy, Marie no sooner discovered its fallacy than she abandoned herself to the most violent grief, refusing to listen to the consolations of her attendants, and bewailing herself that she should have been so cruelly deceived, until the King, although he in some measure participated in her annoyance, succeeded in restoring her to composure by bidding her remember that had she not been of the same sex as the child of which she had just made him the father, she could not have herself realised the previous prediction of Soeur Ange; an argument which, coupled with the probability that the august infant beside her might in its turn ascend a European throne, was in all likelihood the most efficacious one which could have been adopted to reconcile her to its present comparative insignificance.

FOOTNOTES: 

[158] Cesar de Vendome was the son of Henri IV and la belle Gabrielle. He became Governor of Brittany, and superintendent-in-chief of the national navigation.  Henry also bestowed on him as an appanage the duchy of Vendome.  He married the daughter of Philip Emmanuel of Lorraine, Duc de Mercoeur, by whom he had three children:  Isabelle, who became the wife of Charles Amedee, Duc de Nemours; Louis, who died single; and Francois, Duc de Beaufort.

[159] Jean de Berthault (or Bertaut) was born at Caen in 1552.  He was first-almoner of Catherine de Medicis, Abbot of Aulnai, and subsequently Bishop of Seez.  He was a pupil of Ronsard, and a friend of Desportes.  He wrote a great number of sacred and profane poems, psalms, and sonnets.  He also produced a “Funeral Oration on Henri IV,” and a “Translation of St. Ambroise.”  He died in 1611.

[160] Amours du Grand Alcandre, p. 41.

[161] Amours du Grand Alcandre, p. 42.

[162] Claude de Lorraine, Prince de Joinville, was the fourth son of Henri, Duc de Guise, surnamed the Balafre, brother of Charles, Duc de Mayenne, and of Louis, Cardinal de Guise.  He married Marie de Rohan, Duchesse de Chevreuse, the daughter of Hercule de Rohan, Duc de Montbazon, and peer of France, and was subsequently known as Duc de Chevreuse.  He died in 1657.

[163] Amours du Grand Alcandre, pp. 272, 273.

[164] Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. p. 85.  Saint-Edme, p. 218.

[165] Amours du Grand Alcandre, p. 274.

[166] Amours du Grand Alcandre, p. 276.

[167] Mademoiselle de Sourdis was the daughter of Francois d’Escoubleau, Seigneur de Jouy, de Launay, Marquis de Sourdis, etc., and of Isabelle Babou, Dame d’Alluie, daughter of Jean Babou, Seigneur de la Bourdaisiere, and aunt of Gabrielle d’Estrees.  He was deprived of the government of Chartres by the League; but was restored by Henri III at the entreaty of Gabrielle.