The three vivid and impressive character-heads stand out with intense and minute brilliance from a background absolutely blank and void.

Though the scene is laid in a court and the heroine is a queen, there is no bustle of political intrigue, no conflict between the rival attractions of love and power, as in _Colombe's Birthday_.

Love is the absorbing preoccupation of this society, the ultimate ground of all undertakings.

There is vague talk of diplomatic victories, of dominions annexed, of public thanksgivings; but the statesman who has achieved all this did it all to win the hand of a girl, and the aged queen whom he has so successfully served has secretly dreamed all the time, though already wedded, of being his.

For a brilliant young minister to fail to make love to his sovereign, in spite of her grey hairs and the marriage law, is a kind of high treason.