The dislike of the Queen Marie de Médicis and of the minister De Richelieu of Anne of Austria (though some pens declare this crafty statesman to have been also the slave of her charms), greatly strengthened the indifference of the King towards his Queen: indeed, so much was it considered a miracle when the heir to the crown was born, that he was surnamed the “Gift of God.”[17] It was the King’s own act to nominate the Queen, Regent, after his death; and his confidence in her integrity and wisdom was fully justified by her exercise of this power. She was free from all spirit of revenge, never seeking it, even of her worst enemies; and this was greatly evinced in her consideration of the Queen Mary of Médicis, after she had incurred the displeasure of Louis XIII. as well as her kind reception of the persecuted Queen of England, when driven for refuge to the court of France. When Princess of France, Henrietta had been often by the influence of her mother, Mary de Médicis, guilty of acts of unkindness to her brother’s Queen; but this never appeared in the behaviour of the latter towards the Queen of England, whose sorrows she in every manner sought to alleviate, and furnished her with money to send to her captive husband, till the sad termination of his fate. The Duchess of Orléans was only a few days old when her royal brother fled from England; and brought up in the family of the French monarch, she was very dear to the Queen Mother, and chosen by her as the wife of her second son, afterwards Duke of Orléans. [15] Likewise the Grand Condé. [16] Louis was however, till the death of Mazarin, as well as the Queen Mother, bound by the chain of influence and power the latter lived to regret having allowed to the Cardinal. [17] Dieu-donné. ❦ [Sidenote: The MSS.] My friend, I’ve been robb’d! “How I pity your grief!” All my manuscripts gone! “How I pity the thief!” ❦ Let your courage be as keen, but at the same time as polished, as your sword. ❦ [Sidenote: The Nursing of Love.] Lapt in Cythera’s golden sands, When first true Love was born on earth, Long was the doubt, what fost’ring hands Should tend, and rear the glorious birth. First Hebe claim’d the sweet employ; Her cup, her thornless flowers, she said, Would feed him best with health and joy, And cradle best his cherub head. But anxious Venus justly feared The tricks and changeful mind of Youth; Too mild, the seraph Peace appeared; Too stern, too cold, the matron Truth. Next Fancy claimed him for her own; But Venus disallowed her right; She deem’d her Iris pinions shone Too dazzling for his infant sight. To Youth, awhile, the charge was given, And well with Youth the cherub throve; Till Innocence came down from heaven, Sole guardian friend and nurse of Love.