Descendants of the Stuarts

OF THE STUARTS. 93
their first few years of married life passed with
comparative happiness, until the banishment by the
king of Philip's favourite, the Chevalier de Lorraine,
renewed their political dissensions ; as Philip thought
that if Henrietta was all powerful with his brother,
she could have obtained the Chevalier's recall had she
desired it. Pending these differences, Henrietta was
despatched by the Prench king on a confidential
mission to her brother, Charles 11. , when so skil-
fully did she manage matters, that within a week
she brought them to a triumphant issue. Her
success was, however, her ruin ; the Chevalier de
Lorraine, despairing of recovering his influence
whilst she lived, and seeing the vast increase of
power she had acquired, leagued with the Marquis
D'Effiat, a member of the duke's household, and
also an enemy of the duchess, to efi'ect his purpose
by poison. A subtle mixture containing a deadly
preparation was forwarded by the Chevalier to his
confidant from Rome; when the Marquis seizing
his opportunity rubbed the contents in a goblet
from which Henrietta was accustomed to drink
succory water ; this was on the 29th of June, 1670 :
on the following day Madame was a corpse.
Henrietta herself fully believed she was poisoned,
and constantly asserted so to the attendants who
surrounded her, who, however, could not bring
themselves to believe it. Louis XIV. and his
Queen, being hastily summoned from Versailles,
visited the dying princess; there they found the