To the years between 1559 and 1570 belong the drawings in the Bibliothèque Nationale, which are considered as marking the height of this artist's power. Such, for instance, are the portraits of _Maréchal Strozzi_ (1567) and of _Maréchal de Vielville_[120] (1566), supposed to have been dated by the artist himself, a circumstance which greatly adds to their value. We are on certain ground with regard to the genuineness of the signed and dated portrait of _Charles IX_ now at Vienna; but, strange to say, the date has here clearly been tampered with. We can ascertain this from the fact that the young King in the portrait seems certainly only about twenty years of age, and since he was born in 1550 the date upon the picture ought to be 1569 instead of 1563. Furthermore, the original drawing (now at St. Petersburg) from which this finished painting was executed is dated 1569. There is also a miniature taken from it in the Louvre. It would lead us too far if we were to mention all the drawings which bear the stamp of this master's own hand, but there are some on which we ought to dwell as being examples of his finest work. Amongst these are the drawings in the Bibliothèque Nationale of the boy-King _Francis II_[121] and of his young and beautiful bride, _Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots_. In the delicate and subtle pencil drawing of the latter, more than in all her other portraits, we can detect traces of her world-renowned beauty; and this is how she must have looked when, with her young husband beside her, and surrounded by the great dignitaries of State, she entered the Cathedral of Notre Dame for her Coronation. Clouet has succeeded in conveying to us something of the sweetness of her smile, her wistful expression, and the thoughtful look in her eyes. In the miniature at Windsor, which is said to have been reproduced from this drawing, much of the refinement has been lost, and more attention has been paid to accessories, _i.e._ her dress and her ornaments.[122] [Illustration: _Mary Stuart as Dauphine of France From the drawing in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris._] A later drawing, in which the young Queen is represented in her _deuil blanc_ as a widow, is among the framed drawings at Chantilly: a portrait probably executed by François Clouet when she was on the point of leaving her beloved France. This is apparently a reproduction from a lost original, and it found its way to Chantilly with the Lenoir Collection. It is no doubt the last likeness of Mary Stuart made in France. The charm which Clouet so deftly imparted to the portraits of this unhappy Queen seems entirely absent from all the numerous likenesses subsequently made in England by other artists. How hard and set, for instance, do her features seem in the life-size oil-painting by Oudry at Hardwick Hall. All that we can perceive in it is the only too-evident havoc wrought by fate upon that beautiful face.