Gallantry had been gradually resolving itself into a grand system during his reign. The brilliant assemblies and gay circles by which Francis I., of magnificent memory, had encouraged the polished intercourse of his court; the gross sensuality which had been introduced by the wicked and Machiavelian Catherine de Medicis, whose fair dames of honour lured to death their Huguenot lovers; when 'murders were hatched in the arms of love, and massacre was planned in the cabinet of pleasure;' with the shameless libertinism of Henry IV., were all united now to the serious gallantry which Anne of Austria had brought with her from Spain; and thus under Louis XIII.--though he was very little of a gallant himself--love, in his good city of Paris, became a science like astrology, and was analysed like metaphysics; and thus, as I have said, it was formed into a system, which rendered it the serious occupation of every one, and the way was easily prepared for that more absurd state of things which we find under the Grand Monarque his successor, when affairs of state were debated, and solemn councils of war held, round a courtesan lounging on a sofa, or in a pretty woman's bedroom; and when a revolution in the heart of a great man's mistress was an event of nearly as much consequence as a war on the Rhine, or an invasion of Flanders. But to resume-- 'What the deuce is this I hear now, ma belle?' said the King, as he seated himself just where I had sat a moment before; 'here is the _Mercure Francois_ publicly affirming--for M. Richelieu never tells me anything--that Mademoiselle Marie Louise of Lorraine--Duke Charles' daughter--is now in Paris, with her brother the Prince of Vaudemont, suborning my officers. 'Tis a serious thing to assert!' ''Tis impossible, sire!' exclaimed the Countess, changing colour very visibly; 'and that is more than improbable.' 'Nothing is impossible to those accursed Lorraines.' 'Your Majesty forgets that I am of Lorraine,' said the Countess with considerable hauteur. 'Nay, pardon me; but I had hoped you had been long enough in Paris to forget that wicked province.' 'Lorraine is an independent duchy, sire.' '_Was_ you mean, madame, till Henry II., in 1552, reduced it to obedience under the oriflamme, and left there a garrison which cost Charles V. some trouble, and thirty thousand of the best soldiers in Spain too! Moreover Metz, Toul, and Verdun were all confirmed to France by the treaty of Château Cambresis in '59. 'Your Majesty is excessively tiresome.' 'I regret to hear it; but how is this, sweetheart,' said Louis, knitting his brows as he surveyed the glittering dress of the lovely Countess; 'will nothing content you but a robe of blue, powdered with fleurs-de-lis?' 'It becomes me, sire, does it not?' 'Who alone are permitted to wear such?' 'Princesses of the blood royal; but am not I the life of your heart?'