to teach her own children what she undoubtedly believed was the only
possible means of securing for them the favor and protection of Heaven.

There is in London a vast storehouse of books, manuscripts, relics,
curiosities, pictures, and other memorials of by-gone days, called the
British Museum. Among the old records here preserved are various letters
written by Henrietta, and one or two by Charles, the young prince,
during his childhood. Here is one, for instance, written by Henrietta
to her child, when the little prince was but eight years of age, chiding
him for not being willing to take his medicine. He was at that time
under the charge of Lord Newcastle.

"CHARLES,--I am sorry that I must begin my first letter with chiding
you, because I hear that you will not take phisicke, I hope it was
onlie for this day, and that to-morrow you will do it for if you will
not, I must come to you, and _make_ you take it, for it is for your
health. I have given order to mi Lord of Newcastle to send mi word
to-night whether you will or not. Therefore I hope you will not give
me the paines to goe; and so I rest, your affectionate mother,
HENRIETTE MARIE."

The letter was addressed

"To MI DEARE SONNE the Prince."

The queen must have taken special pains with this her first letter to
her son, for, with all its faults of orthography, it is very much more
correct than most of the epistles which she attempted to write in
English. She was very imperfectly acquainted with the English language,
using, as she almost always did, in her domestic intercourse, her own