But the Swedes do not appear to have asked themselves these questions.  Old Lars Larrson took Christina up in his arms, and gazed earnestly into her face.  He had known the great Gustavus well; and his heart was touched, when he saw the likeness which the little girl bore to that heroic monarch.

“Yes,” cried he, with the tears gushing down his furrowed cheeks, “this is truly the daughter of our Gustavus!  Here is her father’s brow!—­here is his piercing eye!  She is his very picture.  This child shall be our queen!”

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Then all the proud nobles of Sweden, and the reverend clergy, and the burghers, and the peasants, knelt down at the child’s feet, and kissed her hand.

“Long live Christina, queen of Sweden!” shouted they.

Even after she was a woman grown, Christina remembered the pleasure which she felt in seeing all these men at her feet, and hearing them acknowledge her as their supreme ruler.  Poor child! she was yet to learn that power does not insure happiness.  As yet, however, she had not any real power.  All the public business, it is true, was transacted in her name; but the kingdom was governed by a number of the most experienced statesmen, who were called a Regency.

But it was considered necessary that the little queen should be present at the public ceremonies, and should behave just as if she were in reality the ruler of the nation.  When she was seven years of age, some ambassadors from the Czar of Muscovy came to the Swedish court.  They wore long beards, and were clad in a strange fashion, with furs, and other outlandish ornaments; and as they were inhabitants of a half-civilized country, they did not behave like other people.  The Chancellor Oxenstiern was afraid that the young queen would burst out a-laughing, at the first sight of these queer ambassadors; or else that she would be frightened by their unusual aspect.

“Why should I be frightened?” said the little queen;—­“and do you suppose that I have no better manners than to laugh?  Only tell me how I must behave; and I will do it.”

Accordingly, the Muscovite ambassadors were introduced; and Christina received them, and answered their speeches, with as much dignity and propriety as if she had been a grown woman.

All this time, though Christina was now a queen, you must not suppose that she was left to act as she pleased.  She had a preceptor, named John Mathias, who was a very learned man, and capable of instructing her in all the branches of science.  But there was nobody to teach her the delicate graces and gentle virtues of a woman.  She was surrounded almost entirely by men; and had learned to despise the society of her own sex.  At the age of nine years, she was separated from her mother, whom the Swedes did not consider a proper person to be entrusted with the charge of her.  No little girl, who sits by a New England fireside, has cause to envy Christina, in the royal palace at Stockholm.