Not a Princess of the Blood, not a Duchess of the realm, but had a smile and a courteous and eager word to bestow upon this apparently insignificant personage, at whose signal even the door of the Queen’s private closet, closed against other intruders, opened upon the instant, as though she alone of all that brilliant galaxy of rank and wealth were to know no impediment, and to be subjected to no delay.

We have been somewhat prolix in our description of this extraordinary woman, but we shall be pardoned when we explain that we here give the portrait of Leonora Galigai, Marquise d’Ancre, the friend, confidante, and foster-sister of Marie de Medicis.

It is, however, time to return to the festivities to which allusion has already been made.  Among these the most remarkable was a splendid carousal which took place in the Place Royale, and which is elaborately described by Bassompierre.  The French Kings had originally held their tourneys, tilts, and passages-at-arms in the Rue St. Antoine, opposite the palace of the Tournelles; but the unfortunate death of Henri II, who was killed there by the lance of the Duc de Montgomery, caused the spot to be abandoned, and they were subsequently transferred to the Place Royale, which had been built in the ancient park of the same palace.

The lists on the present occasion were two hundred and forty feet in length, and were surrounded by barriers and platforms arranged in tiers, and reaching to the first stories of the houses.  Facing the lists was erected the magnificent pavilion destined for their Majesties, which was richly draped with blue and gold, and surmounted by the great national standard, upon which the eagles of Austria and the arms of the Medici were proudly quartered with the fleurs-de-lis of France.

By command of the Queen the lists were held by the Ducs de Guise and de Nevers and the Marquis de Bassompierre, an honour which cost each of the individuals thus favoured the enormous sum of fifty thousand crowns; a fact which is easily understood when it is considered that their retinue consisted of five hundred persons and two hundred horses, the whole of whom, men and animals, were clad and caparisoned in scarlet velvet and cloth of silver.  The number of spectators, exclusive of the Court and the armed guards, was estimated at ten thousand; and from nine in the morning until six in the evening the lists were constantly occupied.  Salvos of artillery, fireworks, and allegorical processions succeeded; and the populace, delighted by “the glorious three days” of revel and relaxation thus provided for them, forgot for the time to murmur at an outlay which threatened them with increased exactions.