It was settled October, 1648, and by this treaty Sweden was confirmed in the possession of many important countries. The services of Salvius, one of her plenipotentiaries on this occasion, were rewarded by the dignity of senator; a prerogative which had till then belonged to birth, but to which the queen thought merit had a better claim.
During the remainder of her reign, a wise administration and a profound peace, reflect upon Christina a higher praise than can be derived from subtle negotiations or successful wars; she enjoyed the entire confidence and love of her people. All persons distinguished for their genius or talents, were attracted by her liberality to the Swedish court; and although her favour was sometimes controlled by her partialities or prejudices, and withheld from the deserving while it was lavished on those who flattered her foibles, yet she soon discovered and repaired such mistakes.
She, at length, began to feel her rank, and the duties it devolved upon her, a burden, and to sigh for freedom and leisure. In 1652, she communicated to the senate her resolution of abdicating the throne; but the remonstrances of the whole people, in which Charles Gustavus, her successor, joined, induced her to wear the crown for two years longer; when she resumed her purpose and carried it into effect, to the great grief of the whole nation.
In leaving the scene of her regal power, she appeared to rejoice as though she had escaped from imprisonment. Having arrived at a small brook which separated Sweden from Denmark, she alighted from her carriage, and leaping over it, exclaimed, "At length I am free, and out of Sweden, whither I hope never to return." Dismissing with her women the habit of her sex, she assumed male attire. "I would become a man," said she; "but it is not that I love men because they are men, but merely that they are not women."
On her arrival at Brussels she publicly and solemnly abjured the Lutheran faith, in which she was educated, and joined the Roman Catholic communion. From Brussels she went to Rome, which she entered with great pomp. She was received with splendid hospitality by the pope, and the Jesuits affirmed that she ought to be placed by the church among the saints: "I had rather," said Christina, "be placed among the sages."
She then went to France, where she was received with royal honours, which she never forgot to claim, by Louis the Fourteenth. But she disturbed the quiet of all the places she visited, by her passion for interfering and controlling, not only political affairs, but the petty cabals of the court. She also disgusted the people by her violation of all the decencies and proprieties of life, by her continuing to wear the dress of the other sex, and of her open contempt for her own. But the act that roused the horror and indignation of Louis the Fourteenth and his whole court, and obliged Christina to leave France, was the murder of Monaldeschi, an Italian, and her master of the horse, who is supposed to have been her lover, and to have betrayed the intrigue, though the fault for which he suffered was never disclosed by Christina. This event occurred in November, 1657, while she was residing in the royal palace of Fontainebleau. Monaldeschi, after having been allowed only about two hours from the time that the queen had made known to him her discovery of his perfidy, was put to death, by
