[300]. It was a hooped skirt of peculiar shape, fashionable in Spain, called a guardainfante, of which a specimen may be seen in the portrait of Mariana in the present volume.
[301]. ‘Lettre de Mme. Villars à Mme. Coulange,’ 15th December 1679.
[302]. Nouvelle relation de la magnifique et royale entrée ... à Madrid par Marie Louise,’ etc. Paris, 1680.
[303]. ‘Mémoires de la Cour d’Espagne.’ Villars.
[304]. Lettres de Mme. Villars à Mme. Coulange.
[305]. ‘Voyage d’Espagne,’ Mme. D’Aulnoy. For the amount of credit to be given to Mme. D’Aulnoy, see note on a previous page.
[306]. Gabacho is an opprobrious term applied to Frenchmen in Spain.
[307]. ‘Mémoires de la Cour d’Espagne.’ Villars.
[308]. Mme. D’Aulnoy in her own Mémoires tells a curious though doubtful story of these perroquets of which Marie Louise was so fond. They had been brought from Paris, and the few sentences they had been taught were in French, so that the Duchess of Terranova thought herself justified in having them killed. When the Queen asked for them and learnt their fate she said nothing: but when next the Mistress of the Robes came to kiss her hand Marie Louise gave her two good sound slaps on the face instead. When the indignant Duchess with all her followers went in a rage to demand redress of the King, Marie Louise excused herself by saying that she gave the slaps overcome by the irresistible influence of a pregnant woman. This flattered the King and she was absolved.
[309]. ‘Mémoires de la Cour d’Espagne.’ Villars.