You must become a female Proteus--today a Messalina, to-morrow a nun; to-day one of the _literati_, to-morrow a playful child; you must ever seek to surprise the king, to keep him on the stretch, to enliven him.

You must never give way to the dangerous feeling of security, for in fact King Henry's wife is never safe.

The axe always hangs over her head, and you must ever consider your husband as only a fickle lover, whom you must every day captivate anew." "You speak as though I were already queen," said Lady Jane, smiling; "and yet I cannot but think that, in order to come to that, many difficulties are to be overcome, which may indeed perhaps be insuperable." "Insuperable!" exclaimed her father with a shrug of the shoulders.

"With the aid of the holy Church, no hinderance is insuperable.

Only, we must be perfectly acquainted with our end and our means.