November 5: 1640

Harsh words have been utter'd and written on her, Henrietta the Queen:
She was young in a difficult part, on a cruel and difficult scene:--
Was it strange she should fail? that the King overmuch should bow down to
her will?
--So of old with the women, God bless them!--it was, so will ever be
still!
Rash in counsel and rash in courage, she aided and marr'd
The shifting tides of the fight, the star of the Stuarts ill-starr'd.
In her the false Florentine blood,--in him the bad strain of the Guise;
Suspicion against her and hate, all that malice can forge and devise;--
As a bird by the fowlers o'ernetted, she shuffles and changes her ground;
No wile unlawful in war, and the foe unscrupulous round!
Woman-like overbelieving Herself and the Cause and the Man,
Fights with two-edged intrigue, suicidal, plan upon plan;
Till the law of this world had its way, and she fled,--like a frigate
unsail'd,
Unmasted, unflagg'd,--to her land; and the strength of the stronger
prevail'd.

But it was not thus, not thus, in the years of thy springtide, O
Queen,
When thy children came in their beauty, and all their future unseen:
When the kingdom had wealth and peace, one smile o'er the face of the
land:
England, too happy, if thou could'st thy happiness understand!
As those over Etna who slumber, and under them rankles the fire.
At her side was the gallant King, her first-love, her girlhood's desire,