rest of her life. Sully says she stipulated only for an establishment
and the payment of her debts, which were granted. After Henri, in 1610,
had fallen a victim to the furious fanaticism of the monk Ravaillac, she
lived to see the kingdom brought into the greatest confusion by the bad
government of the Queen Regent, Marie de Medici, who suffered herself to
be directed by an Italian woman she had brought over with her, named
Leonora Galligai. This woman marrying a Florentine, called Concini,
afterwards made a marshal of France, they jointly ruled the kingdom, and
became so unpopular that the marshal was assassinated, and the wife, who
had been qualified with the title of Marquise d'Ancre, burnt for a witch.
This happened about the time of Marguerite's decease.

It has just before been mentioned how little has been handed down to
these times respecting Queen Marguerite's history. The latter part of
her life, there is reason to believe, was wholly passed at a considerable
distance from Court, in her retirement (so it is called, though it
appears to have been rather her prison) at the castle of Usson. This
castle, rendered famous by her long residence in it, has been demolished
since the year 1634. It was built on a mountain, near a little town of
the same name, in that part of France called Auvergne, which now
constitutes part of the present Departments of the Upper Loire and
Puy-de-Dome, from a river and mountain so named. These Memoirs appear to
have been composed in this retreat. Marguerite amused herself likewise,
in this solitude, in composing verses, and there are specimens still
remaining of her poetry. These compositions she often set to music, and
sang them herself, accompanying her voice with the lute, on which she
played to perfection. Great part of her time was spent in the perusal of
the Bible and books of piety, together with the works of the best authors
she could procure. Brantome assures us that Marguerite spoke the Latin
tongue with purity and elegance; and it appears, from her Memoirs, that