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

INTRODUCTION
xxiii
capable of so doing; she wished instructions as to money
for alms, for the Queen’s chamber, for her plate, as they
had received nothing but a small sum for the ‘ menuz
plaisirs.’ She admitted that money was scarce because
of the continued wars, although, fortunately, her mistress
did not realise it. Puiguillon,1 in his turn, gave the
expenditure for the past nine months, amounting to
18,000 livres and the stable bill of 1600 livres ; the estimate
for the coming year was greater, as the Court would
probably travel more—about 53,000 livres, he thought.
The increase was unavoidable, since the Queen of Scots
had not been well served during the past year. He asked
the Queen to make what alterations she thought fit,
reminding her that they could count on no help from the
King, and that both merchants and attendants, feeling
that, as yet, there was little to be gained from the young
Queen, insisted on ready money, and he closed his letter
with a protest that the household was well ordered and
no more than the allotted sum spent. Again, Madame de
Parrois,2 after reporting on the Queen’s progress in learning
and her study of Latin, begged that she might add to the
estimates, which she understood had been sent, baggage
mules for the Queen and an allowance for her privy purse.
She asked for the permission of Marie de Lorraine to
procure for her daughter a dress of cloth-of-gold for the
approaching marriage of the Count de Vaudemont. Mary
Stuart had been grieved that while the princesses had
been given cloth-of-gold and cloth-of-silver gowns for the
marriage of the governor’s son, she had had to do without;
permission too was asked to make certain alterations in the
child’s jewels and to obtain for her various fashionable
trimmings, with the admission that such things were
expensive. The governess also begged that she might
be granted two outfits a year, such as the princesses’
1 Letter CLVIII.
2 Letter CLXVII.