On their entrance at Paris, instead of the enthusiastic greeting and splendid festivities which Eleanor had an-ticipated, the bridal party was escorted through silent streets by weeping attendants, who conducted them to the death-bed of Louis VI. The great legislator of France gazed with a look of solemn benignity upon the youthful pair that knelt to crave his parting blessing, and remind-ing them, that their recent union involved not only their individual happiness, but the peace and prosperity of both the north and the south, added with his expiring breath, " Remember, royalty is a public trust, for the exercise of which a rigorous account will be exacted by Him who has the sole disposal of crowns and of sceptres." On the conscientious mind of Louis, the words of his dying father made a deep impression ; but his thoughtless part-ner was no sooner crowned Queen of France, than she en-tered upon her career of folly, exerting all her talents, and exercising all her influence in the exciting games of court intrigue. The impassioned verse in which Abelard cele-brated the beauty and love of the gifted but frail Heloise, furnished employment for Eleanor's Provençal minstrels, and formed the topic of general remark among the minions of the court. She assisted the persecuted monk in his defence before the Council of Sens, and after his death caused his body to«be conveyed to the chapel of the Para-clete, and consigned to the care of the melancholy Heloise. She persuaded Louis that the services of his prime minister Vermandois, were indispensable at Paris, and thus, again, brought that nobleman within the charmed sphere of Petronilla's attractions. She contrived, at the same time, to secure for herself a devoted admirer in the Count of Ponthieu, who became the agent of her slightest wish. Through his gallantry she succeeded in involving the beau-tiful Adelais in some matters of court scandal, and thus by exciting the jealousy of the Count of Vermandois, and ex-posing him to the bewitching spells of her sister, she finally persuaded him to divorce his lovely and amiable wife, and espouse the designing Petronilla. 130 HEROINES OF THE CRUSADES.