I went with my father-in-law to see his audience at the French Court, where next the Pope's Nuncio, he was introduced by the master of ceremonies, and, after delivery of his credentials, as from our King, since his father's murder, he was most graciously received by the King of France and his mother, with whom he had a long audience. This was in the Palais Cardinal.
After this, being presented to his Majesty and the Queen Regent I went to see the house built by the late great Cardinal de Richelieu. The most observable thing is the gallery, painted with the portraits of the most illustrious persons and single actions in France, with innumerable emblems between every table. In the middle of the gallery, is a neat chapel, rarely paved in work and devices of several sorts of marble, besides the altar-piece and two statues of white marble, one of St. John, the other of the Virgin Mary, by Bernini. The rest of the apartments are rarely gilded and carved, with some good modern paintings. In the presence hang three huge branches of crystal. In the French King's bedchamber, is an alcove like another chamber, set as it were in a chamber like a movable box, with a rich embroidered bed. The fabric of the palace is not magnificent, being but of two stories; but the garden is so spacious as to contain a noble basin and fountain continually playing, and there is a mall, with an elbow, or turning, to protract it. So I left his Majesty on the terrace, busy in seeing a bull-baiting, and returned[Pg 252] home in Prince Edward's coach with Mr. Paul, the Prince Elector's agent.