de Bethune, did not suffice for so delicate a negotiation; Richelieu sent Father Berulle.  Father Berulle, founder of the brotherhood of the Oratory, patron of the Carmelites, and the intimate friend of Francis de Sales, though devoid of personal ambition, had, been clever enough to keep himself on good terms with Cardinal Richelieu, whose political views he did not share, and with the court of Rome, whose most faithful allies, the Jesuits, he had often thwarted.  He was devoted to Queen Mary de’ Medici, and willingly promoted her desires in the matter of her daughter’s marriage.  He found the court of Rome in confusion, and much exercised by Spanish intrigue.  “This court,” he wrote to the cardinal, “is, in conduct and in principles, very different from what one would suppose before having tried it for one’s self; for my part, I confess to having learned more of it in a few hours, since I have been on the spot, than I knew by all the talk that I have heard.  The dial constantly observed in this country is the balance existing between France, Italy, and Spain.”  “The king my master,” said Count de Bethune, quite openly, “has obtained from England all he could; it is no use to wait for more ample conditions, or to measure them by the Spanish ell; I have orders against sending off any courier save to give notice of concession of the dispensation:  otherwise there would be nothing but asking one thing after another.”  “If we determine to act like Spain, we, like her, shall lose everything,” said Father Berulle.  Some weeks later, on the 6th of January, 1625, Berulle wrote to the cardinal, “For a month I have been on the point of starting, but we have been obliged to take so much trouble and have so many meetings on the subject of transcripts and missives as well as the kernel of the business . . .  I will merely tell you that the dispensation is pure and simple.”

King James I. had died on the 6th of April, 1625; and so it was King Charles I., and not the Prince of Wales, whom the Duke of Chevreuse represented at Paris on the 11th of May, 1625, at the espousals of Princess Henrietta Maria.  She set out on the 2d of June for England, escorted by the Duke of Buckingham, who had been sent by the king to fetch her, and who had gladly prolonged his stay in France, smitten as he was by the young Queen Anne of Austria.  Charles I. went to Dover to meet his wife, showing himself very amiable and attentive to her.  Though she little knew how fatal they would be to her, the king of England’s palaces looked bare and deserted to the new queen, accustomed as she was to French elegance; she, however, appeared contented.  “How can your Majesty reconcile yourself to a Huguenot for a husband?” asked one of her suite, indiscreetly.  “Why not?” she replied, with spirit.  “Was not my father one?”