[Footnote 54: The second Oratorian who remained was Father Viette, who became the Queen's confessor on Father Philip's death. She was allowed to keep also a few inferior French servants, and Maurice Aubert, who appears in a list of her servants made at the time of her marriage, continued with her; he was the companion of Windbank's flight to France in 1641.] [Footnote 55: Baillon: _Henriette Marie de France, reine d'Angleterre_ (1877), p. 348.] [Footnote 56: She said, probably with truth, that the money they had received was in part payment of the debts incurred by her to them: her statement is confirmed by the fact that Charles requested the French Government to pay the debts owing to his wife's servants out of the half of her _dot_, which had not yet been paid.--Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41.] [Footnote 57: Mary de' Medici to Henrietta Maria, August 22nd, 1626. MS. Français, 3692. She wrote on the same day to Charles.] [Footnote 58: Bishop of Mende to King of France, August 12th, 1626. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41.] [Footnote 59: Bassompierre to Bishop of Mende, October 17th. MS. Français, 3692.] [Footnote 60: Bishop of Mende to Bassompierre, October 29th, 1626. MS. Français, 3692.] CHAPTER III THE QUEEN OF THE COURTIERS Let's now take our time While w'are in our prime, And old, old Age is a-farre off: For the evill, evill dayes Will come on apace Before we can be aware of. ROBERT HERRICK "I was," Henrietta Maria[61] was accustomed to say in the days of her sorrow, "I was the happiest and most fortunate of Queens. Not only had I every pleasure which heart could desire, but, above all, I had the love of my husband, who adored me." The expulsion of her French attendants was the foundation of the Queen's married happiness. Away from the insinuations of Madame S. Georges and the gibes of the Bishop of Mende, she began, in an amazingly short time, to appreciate the good qualities of her husband, to which indeed she had never been totally blind; and, in the words of Madame de Motteville, to "make her pleasure of her duty." "The incomparable virtues of the King," wrote Holland at this time, "are working upon the generosity and goodness of the Queen, so that his Majesty should soon have the best wife in the world."[62] And somewhat later an exceptionally well-qualified witness[63] was able to say that the royal couple lived together with the satisfaction which all their loyal subjects ought to desire.