Series 3 > Foreign correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland, from the originals in the Balcarres papers > Volume 7

BALCARRES PAPERS
xii
they expected to welcome him shortly ; the letter is dated
the 11th May 1554, while the actual date of his release was
the 4th April.
An earlier letter from her, written in July 1553,1 told of
the meeting she had with her sons at Compiegne before the
beginning of a campaign, by the gracious permission of the
King. Then she turned to praise of her grandchildren
who, like the little Duke of Longueville, had been confided
to her care ; these were Henri, Prince de Joinville, and
Catherine, god-daughter to Marie de Lorraine, children of
Frangois de Lorraine, and the two children of Claude de
Lorraine, Henri, Comte de St. Vallier, and Catherine.
They were fine children, and the Queen’s god-daughter
was a talkative little person. She is again mentioned
with favour as being the finest of all—a promise of great¬
ness fulfilled in her when Duchess of Montpensier—‘ she
admits being your god-daughter and says she is your
pet.’
The Dowager Duchess2 was careful to inform her
daughter of the credit which the family enjoyed at Court
and the honour done the Duke of Guise and his wife by
the visit of the King and Queen to Anne d’Est on the
occasion of the birth of her second son Charles, afterwards
Duke de Mayenne. She had been present, but was in
haste to return to Joinville to superintend her masons and
to resume the charge of her grandchildren in the place
where she was happiest. Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine,3
also mentioned the birth of the child and his baptism, when
he and the Duke of Ferrara had been godfathers and the
Duchess of Valentinois godmother.
Of the little Duke of Longueville less is said in the
correspondence during the few remaining years of his life.
The Duchess of Guise must have seen him less constantly,
for he seems to have been much at Court: one of her few
Letter CVIII.
2 Letter CXXXVII.
3 Letter CXXXIX.