When Christina arrived at Paris, in 1656, she had already accomplished her abjuration at Brussels, without assigning her motives for it to anybody.

"Those who talk of them know nothing about them," she would say; "and she who knows something about them has never talked of them." There was great curiosity at Paris to see this queen.

The king sent the Duke of Guise to meet her, and he wrote to one of his friends as follows: "She is not tall, she has a good arm, a hand white and well made, but rather a man's than a woman's, a high shoulder,--a defect which she so well conceals by the singularity of her dress, her walk, and her gestures, that you might make a bet about it.

Her face is large without being defective, all her features are the same and strongly marked, a pretty tolerable turn of countenance, set off by a very singular head-dress; that is, a man's wig, very big, and very much raised in front; the top of the head is a tissue of hair, and the back has something of a woman's style of head-dress.

Sometimes she also wears a hat; her bodice, laced behind, crosswise, is made something like our doublets, her chemise bulging out all round her petticoat, which she wears rather badly fastened and not over straight.