Page:The Queens of England.djvu/503

HENRIETTA MARIA OF FRANCE. 455 beth, every endeavor was made to grace her arrival. The vessels in the river gave her a volley of fifteen hundred shot ; and as she approached Whitehall, the fascination of her appear- ance and manners, added to fresh rumors of her kindly senti- ments toward Protestantism, every moment increased the popu- lar enthusiasm. Yet notwithstanding- this auspicious commencement, causes were soon originated of public dissatisfaction and conjugal disquiet. The first arose from the queen's absolute refusal to be even present at the coronation ; which, from some forget- f ulness or want of judgment upon the part of those in power, had been fixed for Candlemas Day, a season of high festival in the Romish calendar, sufficient to preclude a votary of that faith from attendance at a ceremonial of the reformed church, even had she been willing to receive the crown at the ministra- tion of priests whose authority she repudiated. This gave the death-blow to her popularity with the nation, which was aggra- vated by her subsequent refusal to join in the coronation of the king in Scotland. The queen's example encouraged her suite to give further umbrage to the English people, by "dancing," and appearing to mock the august procession, "as they viewed its progress from a window." Nor was the hori- zon of domestic life long unclouded. From the first period of her marriage, Henrietta had discovered that Buckingham, the intimate associate of the king, was a true friend to neither his sovereign nor herself ; and while he used her influence to forward his professions to her sister-in-law, his manner evinced so little of either courtesy or prudence, that, as she afterward confessed, "she began to be out of conceit with the king her husband ; and Buckingham heightened her disgust into aver- sion, by telling her frankly that, if he pleased, he could set them together by the ears. And, indeed, so he did to such a degree that she grew melancholy and longed to return to France." So completely, however, did the duke's influence with her husband prevail, that it was only through his inter- ference, and with a promise that he should accompany her, that she obtained permission to depart, though she was ulti- mately obliged to forego the voyage, in consequence of the queen-mother's refusal to admit the duke at the French court. To Charles himself his favorite adopted a behavior the freedom of which could not be excused even by intimacy. "I witnessed," writes Bassompierre himself, "an instance of great boldness, not to say impertinence, of the Duke of Buckingham, which was,