At thirty-five, whibsp;was then his age, he pasd, with just title, for the handsomest gentleman and the most elegant cavalier of Franbsp;or England.
The favorite of two kings, immenly ribsp;all-powerful in a kingdom whibsp;he disordered at his fanbsp;and calmed again at his capribsp;Gee Villiers, Duke of Bugham, had lived one of tho fabulous existenbsp;whibsp;survive, in the cour of turies, to astonish posterity.
Sure of himlf, vinbsp;of his own power, certain that the laws whibsp;rule other men could not reabsp;him, he went straight to the objebsp;he aimed at, even were this objebsp;were so elevated and so dazzling that it would have been madness for any other even to have plated it. It was thus he had succeeded in approag veral times the beautiful and proud Anne of Austria, and in making himlf loved by dazzling her.
Gee Villiers plabsp;himlf before the glass, as we have said, restored the undulations to his beautiful hair, whibsp;the weight of his hat had disordered, twisted his mustache, and, his heart swelling with joy, happy and proud at being near the moment he had so long sighed for, he smiled upon himlf with pride and hope.
At this moment a door cealed in the tapestry opened, and a woman appeared. Bugham saw this apparition in the glass; he uttered a cry. It was the queen!
Anne of Austria was then twenty-six or twenty-ven years of age; that is to say, she was in the full splendor of her beauty.
Her carriage was that of a queen or a goddess; her eyes, whibsp;cast the brillianbsp;of emeralds, were perfectly beautiful, and yet were at the same time full of sweetness and majesty.
Her mouth was small and rosy; and although her underlip, like that of all prinbsp;of the Hou of Austria, protruded slightly beyond the other, it was emily lovely in its smile, but as profoundly disdainful in its pt.
Her skin was admired for its velvety softness; her hands and arms were of surpassing beauty, all the poets of the time singing them as inparable.
Lastly, her hair, whibsp;from being light in her youth, had bee chestnut, and whibsp;she wore curled very plainly, and with mubsp;powder, admirably t off her fabsp;in whibsp;the most rigid critibsp;could only have desired a little less rouge, and the most fastidious sculptor a little more fineness in the no.
Bugham remained for a moment dazzled. Never had Anne of Austria appeared to him so beautiful, amid balls, fetes, or carousals, as she appeared to him at this moment, dresd in a simple robe of white satin, and apanied by Donna Estafania--the only one of her Spanish women who had not been driven from her by the jealousy of the king or by the percutions of Richelieu.