will recognize the heroine of this Biography. Tt tells the story of Anne fof Austria's carly life as the consort Louis Xf, The matrimonial ddifieulties of royally have often been pictured as quite different from those Experienced by lesser people, yet in essence it often seems that the same taelers which upset the domestic buse of kings and queens are also be found elsewhere. Anne came the magnificence of the French court as a bride afler a long and troublesome carriage journey across Spain, a shy, almost frightened young woman. whose beauly caught the popular imagination and seemed to be her best guarantee of a friendly Feception in her new country. But she had to contend with the overpowering forcefulness of her mother~ in-law; and the young husband, no less shy than his bride, was discon-carted by the lack of delicacy shown by his court and his mother in the early stages of his married life. When the new. French bride-queen had relied to the privacy of her own Apartments on arrival at her fulure ome, she was not given any respite.
The unwilling bridegroom was drought to his beautiful young bride under maternal escort, It is not surprising that a marriage begun under those conditions and subject to the intrigues, political and otherwise, of the court of that d met with many difficulties. Estrangement naturally ensued and the failure of the young' Queen to: produce on heir to the throne enhanced the inis-understanding. Anne herself was unconsciously drawn into the atmosphere of artificiality and intrigue, but she was more the vielim of arch-plotters than the wanton delinquent. In "The 'Three Musketeers" Dumas' heroes gallantly risk their lives to save her Good name—but Anne's entanglement with the Duke of Buckingham was mainly the result of iniquitous treachery by those in whom she should have been able to put complete confidence. Buckingham's admiration for the Queen was known to every-tone and he never troubled to conceal It, The King's jealousy—for despite his own infidelities, Louis XUT admired his beautiful wife—was effectually aroused. All the evidence points to the fact that although Anne was flattered and attracted by the Duke's attentions, che gave no. solid cause for her husband's Jealousy. Nevertheless, Buckingham's enforced departure. exposing her, as It did, to the full force of venomous intrigue, left her very unhappy.—ts
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.