From Rise of Protestantism in France to Publication of the Institutes - James Aitken Wylie

Pontiff and the king terminated to the satisfaction
of both parties. Francis again stipulated that the
bride should bring as outfit "three rings," the
Duchies of Urbino, Milan, and Genoa; and
Clement had no difficulty in promising everything,
seeing he meant to perform nothing. All being
arranged, the little Tuscan beauty was now sent for;
and amid the benedictions of the Pope, the
congratulations of the courtiers, the firing of
cannon, ringing of bells, and rejoicings of the
populace, Catherine de Medici, all radiant with joy
and sparkling with jewels, became the daughter-inlaw
of Francis I., and wife of the Duke of Orleans,
the future Henry II.
In the banquet-chamber in which sat Catherine
de Medici as the bride of the future Henry II. of
France, well might there have been set a seat for
the skeleton which the Egyptians in ancient times
were wont to introduce into their festal halls. Had
that guest sat amid the courtiers at Marseilles,
glaring on them with empty sockets, and mingling
his ghastly grin with their gay merriment, all must
have confessed that never had his presence been
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