"Yes," she commented thoughtfully, "I have heard that you were friends and comrades in many a wild adventure. Tell me more of the King, since you of all others should know him best."
Neurdein
Henri IV. receiving the portrait of Marie de Medici
P. P. Rubens
From the series of paintings ordered by her for the Palace of the Luxembourg
"I know, dear lady, that he loves you."
"How can that be since he has never seen me?"
"Love enters the heart through many strange portals, and Henry of Navarre knows you better than you suspect. Your portrait sent him by your uncle is engraved upon his heart. Love gives a mysterious power of second sight, and I doubt not that the King of France sees you at this moment even as I do, and that Marie de' Medici is for him as for me the embodiment of all womanly perfection."
"The Grand Duchess is approaching," she said in a low voice, "and Henry of Navarre is a forbidden topic—talk of anything else—talk of art."
The subject was apropos, for they were in the garden and Ferdinando's collection of masterpieces was all about them, but the Grand Duchess had caught his closing phrase.
"Who is it," she asked drily, "who has the honour of being the embodiment of the Earl of Essex's ideal of womanly perfection?"