In the meanwhile Lincoln came back from Paris loaded with 2,800 ounces of gilt plate, worth, says Walsingham, 10s. per ounce, and full of the magnificence and gaiety of his entertainment in France. His stay had been one succession of splendid feasts, and Alençon especially had treated him with marked distinction. Coligny and the great Huguenot chiefs had emphatically praised the young Prince to him, and Lincoln came back to his mistress greatly impressed with all he had heard and seen, and assured her that Alençon, far from being inferior, was better than his brother, both in bearing and credit. She characteristically objected that he was not nearly so good-looking, and that the small-pox had not improved him. Lincoln’s favourable opinion was to a great extent confirmed by Walsingham’s report to Cecil. The Duke, he said, was born on the 25th of April, 1555, and his stature is about the same as that of Lord Lincoln. He was reputed to be prudent and brave, but also somewhat feather-headed, which, says Walsingham, is a common fault with his countrymen. Coligny was in great hope of him in religion, and thought he might soon be brought to a knowledge of the truth; and Walsingham concludes his good character of the Prince by hinting that he was really in love with the Queen. But it will be noticed that he says not a word as to his physical charms, which indeed could not compare with his brother Anjou’s somewhat effeminate beauty. He is thus described at the time by the Venetian ambassador in Paris. “His complexion is swarthy and his face pitted with small-pox, his stature small but well set, his hair black and curling naturally. He wears it brushed up from the forehead, which lengthens the oval of his face. He affects popular manners, but his prodigal promises of reforms are only a cloak for his unbridled desire for trouble and dissension.”[74]