ISABELLA OF VALOIS, SURNAMED THE LITTLE QUEEN. SECOND QUEEN OF RICHARD II. THE union of Isabella of Valois with Richard II. presented an anomaly to the people of England unprecedented in their annals. They saw with astonishment an infant, not nine summers old, sharing the throne as the chosen queen-consort of a monarch who had reached his thirtieth year. Richard, whose principal error was attention to his own private feelings in preference to the public good, considered, that by the time this little princess grew up, the lapse of years would have mellowed his grief for the loved and lost Anne of Bohemia; he could not divorce his heart from the memory of his late queen sufficiently to give her a successor nearer his own age. Isabella of Valois was the daughter of Charles VI. of France and Isabeau of Bavaria, that queen of France afterwards so notorious for her wickedness; but at the time of the marriage of Richard II. with her little daughter, queen Isabeau was only distinguished for great beauty and luxurious taste in dress and festivals. The princess Isabella was precocious in intellect and stature, and was every way worthy of fulfilling a queenly destiny. Unlike her sisters, Michelle and Katherine, who were cruelly neglected in their infant years, she was the darling of her parents and of the court of France. Isabella is no mute on the biographical page; the words she uttered have been chronicled; and though so young, both as the wife and widow of an English king, research will show that her actions were of some historical importance. She had been carefully educated, as she proved when the English nobles waited upon her; for when the earl marshal dropped upon his knee, saying,— "Madam, if it please God, you shall be our lady and queen.' "She replied instantly, and without any one prompting her, 'Sir, if it please God and my lord and father, that I be queen of England, I shall be well pleased thereat, for I have been told I shall then be a great lady.' “She made the earl marshal rise, and taking him by the hand, leå him to queen Isabeau, her mother, who was much pleased at her answer, as were all who heard it. The appearance and manners of this young princess were very agreeable to the English ambassadors, and they thought among themselves she would be a lady of high honor and worth." About this time the king of France sent to England the count St. Pol, who had married Richard's half-sister, Maud Holland, surnamed the Fair. King Richard promised his brother-in-law that he would come to Calais, and have an interview with the king of France, when his bride was to be delivered to him; and if a peace could not be agreed upon, a truce for thirty or forty years was to be established. "At 11 o'clock of the Saturday morning, the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, the king of England, attended by his uncles and nobles, waited on the king of France in his tent. Dinner-tables were laid out; that for the kings was very handsome, and the sideboard was covered with magnificent plate. The two kings were seated by themselves, the king of France at the top of the table, and the king of England below him, at a good distance from each other. When dinner was over, which lasted not long, the cloth was removed, the tables carried away, and wine and spices brought. After this the young bride entered the tent, attended by a great number of ladies and damsels. King Charles led her by the hand, and gave her to the king of England, who immediately rose and took his leave. The little queen was placed in a very rich litter, which had been prepared for her; but |