D'Artagnan, the King Maker — page 81: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

72 The Storm. court; from a scent bottle with a perforated silver cap oozed the perfume known as gizethum, vulgarized as “civet” in a later age. Luisa de Guzman-Braganza was fairly versed in the arts and graces of the retrograde Spanish and Portu- guese courts, the latter a dull reflection. She was agree- able; liked by her dependents; it was said that “‘she 1s hard ‘to offend, but hard when offended.” If her wicked godmother, who with the good one bestows all one’s mental powers, had been content with giving her Satanic beauty, all were well, but she had added his rebellious spirit—she wanted not to rank with the highest, but out- rank them! Her ‘husband would have been the most enviable of men, but for this incessant inciter. She left him no peace until her aim was ‘attained. At present the goal was obscured and distant. His absence temporarily deepened her distress and impatience. She wished to ‘be queen. She had the profound subtlety to gull the priests— they believed they would lose nothing, and she prom- ised that ‘they should be neutral; Braganza made friends easily, though secretive, slow and too tardy in gener- osity; he guaranteed that he would have the people of Portugal and ‘her Jeading men. But they lacked what - thad become, in that era, the backbone of all conspiracies —gold. The great captains had degenerated; few of them wotld have refrained from striking a blow on the eve of a certain victory if a golden buckler were thrust between. The precious metals had become invisible in that land where her navigators had brought them almost as bal- last; the merchants hid them in their coffers; the princes stripped the giold lace off their coats not to have the Spanish tax collectors forestall them; the common peo- ple, from long since, were hoarding, and wearing rag's not to betray their well-to-do condition. As for the Jews, recognized negotiators, they were persecuted almost out of existence. “Your ‘highness must shave received my letter, or you ‘would have found me?” asked Donna Jacinta. Eomichooks. co im