Some account of Isabella of France, the little queen.--Richard opens negotiations with the King of France.--A grand embassage sent to France.--Their reception.--Interview of the embassadors with little Isabella.--The negotiations go on satisfactorily.--The marriage ceremony is performed by proxy.--Richard makes arrangements to go and receive his bride.--Grand preparations for the expedition.--The meeting on the French frontier.--The pavilions.--Precautions to guard against violence or treachery.--Ceremonious interviews.--Grand entertainment.--Richard receives his bride.--The palanquin.--Excitement in London.--Reception of the little queen.--The little queen's mode of life in England. King Richard's second wife was called the little queen, because she was so young and small when she was married. She was only about nine years old at that time. The story of this case will show a little how the marriages of kings and princesses in those days were managed. It was not long after the death of good Queen Anne before some of Richard's courtiers and counselors began to advise him to be married again. He replied, as men always do in such cases, that he did not know where to find a wife. The choice was indeed not very large, being restricted by etiquette to the royal families of England and of the neighboring countries. Several princesses were proposed one after another, but Richard did not seem to like any of them. Among other ladies, one of his cousins was proposed to him, a daughter of the Duke of Gloucester. But Richard said no; she was too nearly related to him. At last he took it into his head that he should like to marry little Isabella, the Princess of France, then about nine years old. The idea of his being married to Isabella was calculated to surprise people for two reasons: first, because Isabella was so small, and, secondly, because the King of France, her father, was Richard's greatest and most implacable enemy. France and England had been on bad terms with each other not only during the whole of Richard's reign, but through a great number of reigns preceding; and now, just before the period when this marriage was proposed, the two nations had been engaged in a long and sanguinary war. But Richard said that he was going to make peace, and that this marriage was to be the means of confirming it. "But she is altogether too young for your majesty," said Richard's counselors. "She is a mere child." "True," said the king; "but that is an objection which will grow less and less every year. Besides, I am in no haste. I am young enough myself to wait till she grows up, and, in the mean time, I can have her trained and educated to suit me exactly." So, after a great deal of debate among the king's counselors and in Parliament, it was finally decided to send a grand embassage to Paris to propose to the King of France that he should give his little daughter Isabella in marriage to Richard, King of England.