The Queen of France must be of queenly blood, even as the last was." "All this may be overcome." "And then there are the reasons of state.

If the king marry, it should be to form a powerful alliance, to cement a friendship with a neighbour nation, or to gain some province which may be the bride's dowry.
What is my dowry?
A widow's pension and a work-box." She laughed bitterly, and yet glanced eagerly at her companions, as one who wished to be confuted.
"Your dowry, my daughter, would be those gifts of body and of mind with which heaven has endowed you.

The king has money enough, and the king has provinces enough.

As to the state, how can the state be better served than by the assurance that the king will be saved in future from such sights as are to be seen in this palace to-day ?" "Oh, if it could be so! But think, father, think of those about him-- the dauphin, monsieur his brother, his ministers.

You know how little this would please them, and how easy it is for them to sway his mind.
No, no; it is a dream, father, and it can never be." The faces of the two ecclesiastics, who had dismissed her other objections with a smile and a wave, clouded over at this, as though she had at last touched upon the real obstacle.
"My daughter," said the Jesuit gravely, "that is a matter which you may leave to the Church.