Chapter 16 - Page 2

amiable in disposition. He
was, in fact, more affectionate, and it might be, more effeminate than
the king. He pleased his mother by those trifling sympathizing
attentions all women are glad to receive. Anne of Austria, who would
have been rejoiced to have had a daughter, almost found in this, her
favorite son, the attentions, solicitude, and playful manners of a child
of twelve years of age. All the time he passed with his mother he
employed in admiring her arms, in giving his opinion upon her cosmetics,
and recipes for compounding essences, in which she was very particular;
and then, too, he kissed her hands and cheeks in the most childlike and
endearing manner, and had always some sweetmeats to offer her, or some
new style of dress to recommend. Anne of Austria loved the king, or
rather the regal power in her eldest son; Louis XIV. represented
legitimacy by right divine. With the king, her character was that of the
queen-mother, with Philip she was simply the mother. The latter knew
that, of all places, a mother's heart is the most compassionate and
surest. When quite a child he always fled there for refuge when he and
his brother quarreled, often, after having struck him, which constituted
the crime of high treason on his part, after certain engagements with
hands and nails, in which the king and his rebellious subject indulged in
their night-dresses respecting the right to a disputed bed, having their
servant Laporte as umpire, - Philip, conqueror, but terrified at victory,
used to flee to his mother to obtain reinforcements from her, or at least
the assurance of forgiveness, which Louis XIV. granted with difficulty,
and after an interval. Anne, from this habit of peaceable intervention,
succeeded in arranging the disputes of her sons, and in sharing, at the
same time, all their secrets. The king, somewhat jealous of that
maternal solicitude which was bestowed particularly on his brother, felt
disposed to show towards Anne of Austria more submission and attachment
than his character really dictated. Anne of Austria had adopted this
line of conduct especially towards the young queen. In this manner she
ruled with almost despotic sway over the royal household, and she was
already preparing her batteries to govern with the same absolute
authority the household of her second son. Anne experienced almost a
feeling of pride whenever she saw any one enter her apartment with woe-
begone looks, pale cheeks, or red eyes, gathering from appearances that
assistance was required either by the weakest or the most rebellious.
She was writing, we have said, when Monsieur entered her oratory, not
with red eyes or pale cheeks, but restless, out of temper, and annoyed.
With an absent air he kissed his mother's hands, and sat himself