PREFACE.
Kings are not only exposed to the eyes but to the judgment of all the world ; very often their actions are good or bad according only to the different sentiments of those who judge them by their passions. They have the misfortune to be censured with severity for things about which they might be blamed, but no one has the kindness to defend them for other things which might justly obtain some excuse. All who approach them praise them in their presence through base self-interest, in order to please them ; but each man, with sham virtue, joins in judging them severely when absent. Moreover, their intentions and their sentiments being unknown and their actions public, it often happens that, without wronging equity, they may be accused of faults which they never intended to commit, but of which they are nevertheless guilty, because they have been deceived, either by themselves, for want of knowledge, or by their ministers, who, slaves to ambition, never tell them the truth.
It is this that has led me to write in my leisure hours, and for my amusement, what I know of the life, habits, and inclinations of Queen Anne of Austria, and to repay, by the simple recital of what I recognize in her, the honour she did me in giving me her familiarity. For, though I do not pretend to be able to praise her in all things, and, in accordance with my natural disposition, I am not capable of disguise, I am, nevertheless, very sure that historians who have not known her virtues and her kindness, and who will speak of her only in accordance with the satirical talk of the public,
