Excerpt from Lives of the Queens of England, From the Norman Conquest, Vol. 10 of 16 The following graphic portrait, drawn by her friend madame de Motteville, gives a faithful description of queen Henrietta, both in person and mind; and it must be re membered that the study was from life, and the result of familiar acquaintance I found this once lovely queen very ill, and much changed, being meagre and shrunk to a shadow. Her mouth, which naturally was the worst feature of her face, had become too large; even her form seemed marred. She still had beautiful eyes, a charming com plexion, a nose finely formed, and something in her ex pression so spirituelle and agreeable that it commanded the love of every one; she had, withal, great wit and a brilliant mind, which delighted all her auditors. She was not above being agreeable in society, and was, at the same time, sweet, sincere, easy, and accessible, living with those who had the honor of her intimacy without form or ceremony. Her temper was by nature gay and cheerful. Often, when her tears were streaming while she narrated her troubles, the reminiscence of some ridiculous adventure would occur, and she would make all the company laugh by her wit and lively description before her own eyes were dry. To me her con versation usually took a solid tone; her grief and deep feel ing made her look on this life and the pride of it in a true light, which rendered her far more estimable than she would have been bad sorrow never touched her. She was naturally a most generous character: those who knew her in her prosperity assured me, that her hand was most bounteous as long as she had aught to give. Such is the sketch drawn by Henrietta's most intimate friend, who was at the same time one of the most virtuous, the most aecom plished and learned of her countrywomen. The French people, not yet agitated by the insurgency of the civil war of the Fronde, paid the most affectionate at tention to Henrietta, regarding her as the daughter, sister. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.