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diff --git a/old/17701-8.txt b/old/17701-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e5c68ad..0000000 --- a/old/17701-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6287 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. (of V.), by -Margaret, Queen Of Navarre - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. (of V.) - -Author: Margaret, Queen Of Navarre - -Illustrator: Freudenberg and Dunker - -Translator: George Saintsbury: From The Authentic Text -Of M. Le Roux De Lincy With An Essay Upon The Heptameron by the Translator - -Release Date: February 7, 2006 [EBook #17701] -Last Updated: September 9, 2016 - - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALES OF THE HEPTAMERON *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger - - - - - -THE TALES OF - -THE HEPTAMERON - -OF - -Margaret, Queen of Navarre - -_Newly Translated into English from the Authentic Text_ - -OF M. LE ROUX DE LINCY WITH - -AN ESSAY UPON THE HEPTAMERON - -BY - -GEORGE SAINTSBURY, M.A. - -Also the Original Seventy-three Full Page Engravings - - - -Designed by S. FREUDENBERG - -And One Hundred and Fifty Head and Tail Pieces - -By DUNKER - -_IN FIVE VOLUMES_ - -VOLUME THE FIRST - -LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY OF ENGLISH BIBLIOPHILISTS - -MDCCCXCIV - - -[Illustration: Frontispiece] - -[Margaret, Queen of Navarre, from a crayon drawing by Clouet, preserved -at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris] - -[Illustration: Titlepage] - - -CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. - -Preface - -Memoir of Margaret of Angoulême - -Essay on the Heptameron - -Dedications and Preface to the Original Editions - -of the Heptameron - -The Prologue - - -FIRST DAY. - -Tale I. The pitiful history of a Proctor of Alençon, named St. Aignan, -and of his wife, who caused her husband to assassinate her lover, the -son of the Lieutenant-General - -II. The fate of the wife of a muleteer of Amboise, who suffered herself -to be killed by her servant rather than sacrifice her chastity - -III. The revenge taken by the Queen of Naples, wife to King Alfonso, for -her husband’s infidelity with a gentleman’s wife - -IV. The ill success of a Flemish gentleman who was unable to obtain, -either by persuasion or force, the love of a great Princess - -V. How a boatwoman of Coulon, near Nyort, contrived to escape from the -vicious designs of two Grey Friars - -Tale VI. How the wife of an old valet of the Duke of Alençon’s succeeded -in saving her lover from her husband, who was blind of one eye - -VII. The craft of a Parisian merchant, who saved the reputation of the -daughter by offering violence to the mother - -Appendix to the First Day - - - - -ENGRAVINGS - - -To face page Queen Margaret of Navarre. Frontispiece. - -Prologue: The Story-tellers in the Meadow near The Gave. By S. -Freudenberg - - -FIRST DAY. - -Tale I. Du Mesnil learns his Mistress’s Infidelity from her Maid. By S. -Freudenberg - -II. The Muleteer’s Servant attacking his Mistress. By S. Freudenberg - -III. The King Joking upon the Stag’s Head being A fitting Decoration. By -S. Freudenberg - -IV. The Princess’s Lady of Honour hurrying to her Mistress’s Assistance. -By S. Freudenberg - -V. The Boatwoman of Coulon outwitting the Friars. By S. Freudenberg - -VI. The Wife’s Ruse to secure the Escape of her Lover. By S. Freudenberg - -VII. The Merchant transferring his Caresses from the Daughter to the -Mother. By S. Freudenberg - - - - -PREFACE. - -The first printed version of the famous Tales of Margaret of Navarre, -issued in Paris in the year 1558, under the title of “Histoires des -Amans Fortunez,” was extremely faulty and imperfect. It comprised but -sixty-seven of the seventy-two tales written by the royal author, and -the editor, Pierre Boaistuau, not merely changed the order of those -narratives which he did print, but suppressed numerous passages in them, -besides modifying much of Margaret’s phraseology. A somewhat similar -course was adopted by Claude Gruget, who, a year later, produced what -claimed to be a complete version of the stories, to which he gave the -general title of the _Heptameron_, a name they have ever since retained. -Although he reinstated the majority of the tales in their proper -sequence, he still suppressed several of them, and inserted others in -their place, and also modified the Queen’s language after the fashion -set by Boaistuau. Despite its imperfections, however, Gruget’s version -was frequently reprinted down to the beginning of the eighteenth -century, when it served as the basis of the numerous editions of the -_Heptameron_ in _beau langage_, as the French phrased it, which then -began to make their appearance. It served, moreover, in the one or the -other form, for the English and other translations of the work, and down -to our own times was accepted as the standard version of the Queen -of Navarre’s celebrated tales. Although it was known that various -contemporary MSS. were preserved at the French National Library in -Paris, no attempt was made to compare Gruget’s faulty version with the -originals until the Société des Bibliophiles Français entrusted this -delicate task to M. Le Roux de Lincy, whose labours led to some most -valuable discoveries, enabling him to produce a really authentic version -of Margaret’s admired masterpiece, with the suppressed tales restored, -the omitted passages reinstated, and the Queen’s real language given for -the first time in all its simple gracefulness. - -It is from the authentic text furnished by M. Le Roux de Lincy that the -present translation has been made, without the slightest suppression or -abridgment. The work moreover contains all the more valuable notes to -be found in the best French editions of the _Heptameron_, as well as -numerous others from original sources, and includes a _résumé_ of the -various suggestions made by MM. Félix Frank, Le Roux de Lincy, Paul -Lacroix, and A. de Montaiglon, towards the identification of the -narrators of the stories, and the principal actors in them, with -well-known personages of the time. An Essay on the _Heptameron_ from the -pen of Mr. George Saintsbury, M.A., and a Life of Queen Margaret, -are also given, as well as the quaint Prefaces of the earlier French -versions; and a complete bibliographical summary of the various editions -which have issued from the press. - -It may be supposed that numerous illustrated editions have been -published of a work so celebrated as the _Heptameron_, which, -besides furnishing scholars with a favourite subject for research and -speculation, has, owing to its perennial freshness, delighted so many -generations of readers. Such, however, is not the case. Only two fully -illustrated editions claim the attention of connoisseurs. The first -of these was published at Amsterdam in 1698, with designs by the Dutch -artist, Roman de Hooge, whose talent has been much overrated. To-day -this edition is only valuable on account of its comparative rarity. Very -different was the famous edition illustrated by Freudenberg, a Swiss -artist--the friend of Boucher and of Greuze--which was published in -parts at Berne in 1778-81, and which among amateurs has long commanded -an almost prohibitive price. - -The Full-page Illustrations to the present translation are printed from -the actual copperplates engraved for the Berne edition by Longeuil, -Halbou, and other eminent French artists of the eighteenth century, -after the designs of S. Freudenberg. There are also the one hundred and -fifty elaborate head and tail pieces executed for the Berne edition by -Dunker, well known to connoisseurs as one of the principal engravers of -the _Cabinet_ of the Duke de Choiseul. - -The Portrait of Queen Margaret placed as frontispiece to the present -volume is from a crayon drawing by Clouet, preserved at the Bibliothèque -Nationale, Paris. - -Ernest A. Vizetelly. - -London, - -1893. - - - - -_Explanation of the Initials appended to the Notes_. - -B.J...Bibliophile Jacob, i.e. Paul Lacroix. - -D.....F. Dillaye. - -F.....Félix Frank. - -L.....Le Roux de Lincy. - -M.....Anatole de Montaiglon. - -Ed....E. A. Vizetelly. - - - - -_MARGARET OF ANGOULÊME, QUEEN OF NAVARRE._ - - - - -I. - - _Louise of Savoy; her marriage with the Count of Angouleme-- - Birth of her children Margaret and Francis--Their father’s - early death--Louise and her children at Amboise--Margaret’s - studies and her brother’s pastimes--Marriage of Margaret - with the Duke of Alençon--Her estrangement from her husband-- - Accession of Francis I.--The Duke of Alençon at Marignano-- - Margaret’s Court at Alençon--Her personal appearance--Her - interest in the Reformation and her connection with Clement - Marot--Lawsuit between Louise of Savoy and the Constable de - Bourbon._ - -In dealing with the life and work of Margaret of Angouleme (1) it is -necessary at the outset to refer to the mother whose influence and -companionship served so greatly to mould her daughter’s career. - - 1 This Life of Margaret is based upon the memoir by M, Le - Roux de Lincy prefixed to the edition of the _Heptameron_ - issued by the Société des Bibliophiles Français, but various - errors have been rectified, and advantage has been taken of - the researches of later biographers. - -Louise of Savoy, daughter of Count Philip of Bresse, subsequently Duke -of Savoy, was born at Le Pont d’Ain in 1477, and upon the death of her -mother, Margaret de Bourbon, she married Charles d’Orléans, Count of -Angoulême, to whom she brought the slender dowry of thirty-five thousand -livres. (1) She was then but twelve years old, her husband being some -twenty years her senior. He had been banished from the French Court for -his participation in the insurrection of Brittany, and was living in -straitened circumstances. Still, on either side the alliance was an -honourable one. Louise belonged to a sovereign house, while the Count -of Angoulême was a prince of the blood royal of France by virtue of his -descent from King Charles V., his grandfather having been that monarch’s -second son, the notorious Duke Louis of Orleans, (2) who was murdered in -Paris in 1417 at the instigation of John the Bold of Burgundy. - - 1 The value of the Paris livre at this date was twenty - sols, so that the amount would be equivalent to about L1400. - - 2 This was the prince described by Brantôme as a “great - débaucher of the ladies of the Court, and invariably of the - greatest among them.”--_Vies des Dames galantes_ (Disc. i.). - -Louise, who, although barely nubile, impatiently longed to become a -mother, gave birth to her first child after four years of wedded -life. “My daughter Margaret,” she writes in the journal recording the -principal events of her career, “was born in the year 1492, the eleventh -day of April, at two o’clock in the morning; that is to say, the tenth -day, fourteen hours and ten minutes, counting after the manner of -the astronomers.” This auspicious event took place at the Château of -Angoulême, then a formidable and stately pile, of which nowadays there -only remains a couple of towers, built in the fourteenth and fifteenth -centuries. Soon afterwards Cognac became the Count of Angoulême’s -favourite place of residence, and it was there that Louise gave birth, -on September 12th, 1494, to her second child, a son, who was christened -Francis. - -Louise’s desires were now satisfied, but her happiness did not long -remain complete. On January 1st, 1496, when she was but eighteen years -old, she lost her amiable and accomplished husband, and forthwith -retiring to her Château of Romorantin, she resolved to devote herself -entirely to the education of her children. The Duke of Orleans, who, -on the death of Charles VIII. in 1498, succeeded to the throne as Louis -XII., was appointed their guardian, and in 1499 he invited them and -their mother to the royal Château of Amboise, where they remained for -several years. - -The education of Francis, who had become heir-presumptive to the throne, -was conducted at Amboise by the Marshal de Gié, one of the King’s -favourites, whilst Margaret was intrusted to the care of a venerable -lady, whom her panegyrist does not mention by name, but in whom he -states all virtues were assembled. (1) This lady took care to regulate -not only the acts but also the language of the young princess, who was -provided with a tutor in the person of Robert Hurault, Baron of Auzay, -great archdeacon and abbot of St. Martin of Autun. (2) This divine -instructed her in Latin and French literature, and also taught her -Spanish and Italian, in which languages Brantôme asserts that she became -proficient. “But albeit she knew how to speak good Spanish and good -Italian,” he says, “she always made use of her mother tongue for matters -of moment; though when it was necessary to join in jesting and gallant -conversation she showed that she was acquainted with more than her daily -bread.” (3) - - 1 Sainte-Marthe’s _Oraison funèbre de la Royne de Navarre_, - p. 22. Margaret’s modern biographers state that this lady was - Madame de Chastillon, but it is doubtful which Madame - de Chastillon it was. The Rev. James Anderson assumes it was - Louise de Montmorency, the mother of the Colignys, whilst - Miss Freer asserts it was Anne de Chabannes de Damniartin, - wife of James de Chastillon, killed in Italy in 1572. M. - Franck has shown, in his edition of the _Heptameron_, that - Anne de Chabannes died about 1505, and that James de - Chastillon then married Blanche de Tournon. Possibly his - first wife may have been Margaret’s governess, but what is - quite certain is that the second wife became her lady of - honour, and that it is she who is alluded to in the - _Heptameron_. - - 2 Odolant Desnos’s _Mémoires historiques sur Alençon_, - vol. ii. - - 3 Brantôme’s _Rodomontades espagnoles_, 18mo, 1740, vol. - xii. p. 117. - -Such was Margaret’s craving for knowledge that she even wished to -obtain instruction in Hebrew, and Paul Paradis, surnamed Le Canosse, a -professor at the Royal College, gave her some lessons in it. Moreover, -a rather obscure passage in the funeral oration which Sainte-Marthe -devoted to her after her death, seemingly implies that she acquired -from some of the most eminent men then flourishing the precepts of the -philosophy of the ancients. - -The journal kept by Louise of Savoy does not impart much information as -to the style of life which she and her children led in their new abode, -the palatial Château of Amboise, originally built by the Counts of -Anjou, and fortified by Charles VII. with the most formidable towers in -France. (1) - - 1 The Château of Amboise, now the private property of the - Count de Paris, is said to occupy the site of a Roman - fortress destroyed by the Normans and rebuilt by Foulques - the Red of Anjou. When Francis I. ascended the French throne - he presented the barony of Amboise with its hundred and - forty-six fiefs to his mother, Louise of Savoy. - -Numerous authorities state, however, that Margaret spent most of her -time in study with her preceptors and in the devotional exercises which -then had so large a place in the training of princesses. Still she was -by no means indifferent to the pastimes in which her brother and his -companions engaged. Gaston de Foix, the nephew of the King, William -Gouffier, who became Admiral de Bonnivet, Philip Brion, Sieur de -Chabot, Fleurange, “the young adventurer,” Charles de Bourbon, Count -of Montpensier, and Anne de Montmorency--two future Constables of -France--surrounded the heir to the throne, with whom they practised -tennis, archery, and jousting, or played at soldiers pending the time -when they were to wage war in earnest. (1) - -Margaret was a frequent spectator of these pastimes, and took a keen -interest in her brother’s efforts whenever he was assailing or defending -some miniature fortress or tilting at the ring. It would appear also -that she was wont to play at chess with him; for we have it on high -authority that it is she and her brother who are represented, thus -engaged, in a curious miniature preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale -in Paris. (2) In this design--executed by an unknown artist--only the -back of Francis is to be seen, but a full view of Margaret is supplied; -the personage standing behind her being Artus Gouffier, her own and her -brother’s governor. - - 1 Fleurange’s _Histoire des Choses mémorables advenues du - Reigne de Louis XII. et François I_. - - 2 Paulin Paris’s _Manuscrits françois de la Bibliothèque du - Roi_, &c., Paris, 1836, vol. i. pp. 279-281. The miniature - in question is contained in MS. No. 6808: _Commentaire sur - le Livre des Échecs amoureux et Archiloge Sophie_. - -Whatever time Margaret may have devoted to diversion, she was certainly -a very studious child, for at fifteen years of age she already had the -reputation of being highly accomplished. Shortly after her sixteenth -birthday a great change took place in her life. On August 3rd, 1508, -Louise of Savoy records in her journal that Francis “this day quitted -Amboise to become a courtier, and left me all alone.” Margaret -accompanied her brother upon his entry into the world, the young couple -repairing to Blois, where Louis XII. had fixed his residence. There -had previously been some unsuccessful negotiations in view of marrying -Margaret to Prince Henry of England (Henry VIII.), and at this period -another husband was suggested in the person of Charles of Austria, Count -of Flanders, and subsequently Emperor Charles V. Louis XII., however, -had other views as regards the daughter of the Count of Angoulême, for -he knew that if he himself died without male issue the throne would pass -to Margaret’s brother. Hence he decided to marry her to a prince of the -royal house, Charles, Duke of Alençon. - -This prince, born at Alençon on September 2nd, 1489, had been brought -up at the Château of Mauves, in Le Perche, by his mother, the pious and -charitable Margaret of Lorraine, who on losing her husband had resolved, -like Louise of Savoy, to devote herself to the education of her -children. (1) - - 1 Hilarion de Coste’s _Vies et Éloges des Dames illustres_, - vol. ii. p. 260. - -It had originally been intended that her son Charles should marry Susan, -daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Bourbon--the celebrated Peter and -Anne de Beaujeu--but this match fell through owing to the death of Peter -and the opposition of Anne, who preferred the young Count of Montpensier -(afterwards Constable de Bourbon) as a son-in-law. A yet higher alliance -then presented itself for Charles: it was proposed that he should marry -Anne of Brittany, the widow of King Charles VIII., but she was many -years his senior, and, moreover, to prevent the separation of Brittany -from France, it had been stipulated that she should marry either her -first husband’s successor (Louis XII.) or the heir-presumptive to the -throne. Either course seemed impracticable, as the heir, Francis of -Angoulême, was but a child, while the new King was already married to -Jane, a daughter of Louis XI. Brittany seemed lost to France, when Louis -XII., by promising the duchy of Valentinois to Cæsar Borgia, prevailed -upon Pope Alexander VI. to divorce him from his wife. He then married -Anne of Brittany, while Charles of Alençon proceeded to perfect his -knightly education, pending other matrimonial arrangements. - -In 1507, when in his eighteenth year, he accompanied the army which the -King led against the Genoese, and conducted himself bravely; displaying -such courage, indeed, at the battle of Agnadel, gained over the -Venetians--who were assailed after the submission of Genoa--that Louis -XII. bestowed upon him the Order of St. Michael. It was during this -Italian expedition that his mother negotiated his marriage with Margaret -of Angoulême. The alliance was openly countenanced by Louis XII., -and the young Duke of Valois--as Francis of Angoulême was now -called--readily acceded to it. Margaret brought with her a dowry of -sixty thousand livres, payable in four instalments, and Charles, who was -on the point of attaining his twenty-first year, was declared a major -and placed in possession of his estates. (1) The marriage was solemnised -at Blois in October 1509. - - 1 Odolant Desnos’s _Mémoires historiques sur Alençon_, - vol. ii. p. 231 - -Margaret did not find in her husband a mind comparable to her own. -Differences of taste and temper brought about a certain amount of -coolness, which did not, however, hinder the Duchess from fulfilling -the duties of a faithful, submissive wife. In fact, although but little -sympathy would appear to have existed between the Duke and Duchess -of Alençon, their domestic differences have at least been singularly -exaggerated. - -During the first five years of her married life Margaret lived in -somewhat retired style in her duchy of Alençon, while her husband took -part in various expeditions, and was invested with important functions. -In 1513 he fought in Picardy against the English and Imperialists, -commanded by Henry VIII., being present at the famous “Battle of Spurs;” - and early in 1514 he was appointed Lieutenant-General and Governor of -Brittany. Margaret at this period was not only often separated from her -husband, but she also saw little of her mother, who had retired to her -duchy of Angoulême. Louise of Savoy, as mother of the heir-presumptive, -was the object of the homage of all adroit and politic courtiers, but -she had to behave with circumspection on account of the jealousy of -the Queen, Anne of Brittany, whose daughters, Claude and Renée, were -debarred by the Salic Law from inheriting the crown. Louis XII. wished -to marry Claude to Francis of Angoulême, but Anne refusing her consent, -it was only after her death, in 1514, that the marriage was solemnised. - -It now seemed certain that Francis would in due course ascend the -throne; but Louis XII. abruptly contracted a third alliance, marrying -Mary of England, the sister of Henry VIII. Louise of Savoy soon deemed -it prudent to keep a watch on the conduct of this gay young Queen, and -took up her residence at the Court in November 1514. Shortly afterwards -Louis XII. died of exhaustion, as many had foreseen, and the hopes of -the Duchess of Angoulême were realised. She knew the full extent of her -empire over her son, now Francis I., and felt both able and ready to -exercise a like authority over the affairs of his kingdom. - -The accession of Francis gave a more important position to Margaret and -her husband. The latter was already one of the leading personages of the -state, and new favours increased his power. He did not address the King -as “Your Majesty,” says Odolant Desnos, but styled him “Monseigneur” - or “My Lord,” and all the acts which he issued respecting his duchy of -Alençon began with the preamble, “Charles, by the grace of God.” - Francis had scarcely become King than he turned his eyes upon Italy, and -appointing his mother as Regent, he set out with a large army, a -portion of which was commanded by the Duke of Alençon. At the battle -of Marignano the troops of the latter formed the rearguard, and, on -perceiving that the Swiss were preparing to surround the bulk of the -French army, Charles marched against them, overthrew them, and by his -skilful manouvres decided the issue of the second day’s fight. (1) The -conquest of the duchy of Milan was the result of this victory, and peace -supervening, the Duke of Alençon returned to France. - - 1 Odolant Desnos’s _Mémoires historiques sur Alençon_, vol. - ii. p. 238. - -It was at this period that Margaret began to keep a Court, which, -according to Odolant Desnos, rivalled that of her brother. We know -that in 1517 she and her husband entertained the King with a series of -magnificent fêtes at their Château of Alençon, which then combined both -a palace and a fortress. But little of the château now remains, as, -after the damage done to it during the religious wars between 1561 -and 1572, it was partially demolished by Henry IV. when he and Biron -captured it in 1590. Still the lofty keep built by Henry I. of England -subsisted intact till in 1715 it was damaged by fire, and finally in -1787 razed to the ground. - -The old pile was yet in all its splendour in 1517, when Francis I. was -entertained there with jousts and tournaments. At these gay gatherings -Margaret appeared apparelled in keeping with her brother’s love of -display; for, like all princesses, she clothed herself on important -occasions in sumptuous garments. But in every-day life she was -very simple, despising the vulgar plan of impressing the crowd by -magnificence and splendour. In a portrait executed about this period, -her dark-coloured dress is surmounted by a wimple with a double collar -and her head covered with a cap in the Bearnese style. This portrait (1) -tends, like those of a later date, to the belief that Margaret’s beauty, -so celebrated by the poets of her time, consisted mainly in the -nobility of her bearing and the sweetness and liveliness spread over her -features. Her eyes, nose, and mouth were very large, but although she -had been violently attacked with small-pox while still young, she had -been spared the traces which this cruel illness so often left in those -days, and she even preserved the freshness of her complexion until late -in life. (2) - - 1 It is preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, - where it will be found in the _Recueil de Portraits au - crayon par Clouett Dumonstier, &c_, fol. xi. - - 2 Referring to this subject, she says in one of her letters: - “You can tell it to the Count and Countess of Vertus, whom - you will go and visit on my behalf; and say to the Countess - that I am sorely vexed that she has this loathsome illness. - However, I had it as severely as ever was known. And if it - be that she has caught it as I have been told, I should like - to be near her to preserve her complexion, and do for her - what Ï did for myself.”--Génin’s _lettres de Marguerite - d’Angoulême_, Paris, 1841, p. 374. - -Like her brother, whom she greatly resembled, she was very tall. Her -gait was solemn, but the dignified air of her person was tempered by -extreme affability and a lively humour, which never left her. (1) - - 1 Sainte-Marthe says on this subject: “For in her face, in - her gestures, in her walk, in her words, in all that she did - and said, a royal gravity made itself so manifest and - apparent, that one saw I know not what of majesty which - compelled every one to revere and dread her. In seeing her - kindly receive every one, refuse no one, and patiently - listen to all, you would have promised yourself easy and - facile access to her; but if she cast eyes upon you, there - was in her face I know not what of gravity, which made you - so astounded that you no longer had power, I do not say to - walk a step, but even to stir a foot to approach her.”-- - _Oraison-funèbre, &c_, p. 53. - -Francis I. did not allow the magnificent reception accorded to him at -Alençon to pass unrewarded. He presented his sister with the duchy of -Berry, where she henceforward exercised temporal control, though she -does not appear to have ever resided there for any length of time. -In 1521, when her husband started to the relief of Chevalier Bayard, -attacked in Mézières by the Imperial troops, she repaired to Meaux with -her mother so as to be near to the Duke. Whilst sojourning there she -improved her acquaintance with the Bishop, William Briçonnet, who had -gathered around him Gerard Roussel, Michael d’Arande, Lefèvre d’Etaples, -and other celebrated disciples of the Reformation. The effect of -Luther’s preaching had scarcely reached France before Margaret had begun -to manifest great interest in the movement, and had engaged in a long -correspondence with Briçonnet, which is still extant. Historians are -at variance as to whether Margaret ever really contemplated a change of -religion, or whether the protection she extended to the Reformers was -simply dictated by a natural feeling of compassion and a horror of -persecution. It has been contended that she really meditated a change -of faith, and even attempted to convert her mother and brother; and this -view is borne out by some passages in the letters which she wrote to -Bishop Briçonnet after spending the winter of 1521 at Meaux. - -Whilst she was sojourning there, her husband, having contributed to the -relief of Mézières, joined the King, who was then encamped at Fervacques -on the Somme, and preparing to invade Hainault. It was at this juncture -that Clement Marot, the poet, who, after being attached to the person -of Anne of Brittany, had become a hanger-on at the Court of Francis I., -applied to Margaret to take him into her service. (1) - - 1 Epistle ii.: _Le Despourveu à Madame la Duchesse - d’Alençon_, in the _OEuvres de Clément Marot_, 1700, vol. i. - p. 99. - -Shortly afterwards we find him furnishing her with information -respecting the royal army, which had entered Hainault and was fighting -there. (1) - - 1 Epistle iii.: _Du Camp d’ Attigny à ma dite Dame d’ - Alençon, ibid._, vol. i. p. 104. - -Lenglet-Dufresnoy, in his edition of Marot’s works, originated the -theory that the numerous poems composed by Marot in honour of Margaret -supply proofs of an amorous intrigue between the pair. Other authorities -have endorsed this view; but M. Le Roux de Lincy asserts that in the -pieces referred to, and others in which Marot incidentally speaks of -Margaret, he can find no trace either of the fancy ascribed to her for -the poet or of the passion which the latter may have felt for her. Like -all those who surrounded the Duchess of Alençon, Marot, he remarks, -exalted her beauty, art, and talent to the clouds; but whenever it is to -her that his verses are directly addressed, he does not depart from -the respect he owes to her. To give some likelihood to his conjectures, -Lenglet-Dufresnoy had to suppose that Marot addressed Margaret in -certain verses which were not intended for her. In the epistles -previously mentioned, and in several short pieces, rondeaux, epigrams, -new years’ addresses, and epitaphs really written to or for the sister -of Francis I., one only finds respectful praise, such as the humble -courtier may fittingly offer to his patroness. There is nothing -whatever, adds M. Le Roux de Lincy, to promote the suspicion that a -passion, either unfortunate or favoured, inspired a single one of these -compositions. - -The campaign in which Francis I. was engaged at the time when Marot’s -connection with Margaret began, and concerning which the poet supplied -her with information, was destined to influence the whole reign, since -it furnished the occasion of the first open quarrel between Francis -I. and the companion of his childhood, Charles de Bourbon, Count of -Montpensier, and Constable of France. Yielding too readily on this -occasion to the persuasions of his mother, Francis intrusted to -Margaret’s husband the command of the vanguard, a post which the -Constable considered his own by virtue of his office. He felt mortally -offended at the preference given to the Duke of Alençon, and from that -day forward he and Francis were enemies for ever. - -Whilst the King was secretly jealous of Bourbon, who was one of the -handsomest, richest, and bravest men in the kingdom, Louise of Savoy, -although forty-four years of age, was in love with him. The Constable, -then thirty-two, had lost his wife, Susan de Bourbon, from whom he -had inherited vast possessions. To these Louise of Savoy, finding her -passion disregarded, laid claim, as being a nearer relative of the -deceased. A marriage, as Chancellor Duprat suggested, would have served -to reconcile the parties, but the Constable having rejected the proposed -alliance--with disdain, so it is said--the suit was brought before the -Parliament and decided in favour of Louise. Such satisfaction as she -may have felt was not, however, of long duration, for Charles de Bourbon -left France, entered the service of Charles V., and in the following -year (1524) helped to drive the French under Bonnivet out of Italy. - - - - -II. - - _The Regency of Louise of Savoy--Margaret and the royal - children--The defeat of Pavia and the death of the Duke of - Alençon--The Royal Trinity--“All is lost save honour”-- - Margaret’s journey to Spain and her negotiations with - Charles V.--Her departure from Madrid--The scheme to arrest - her, and her flight on horseback--Liberation of Francis I.-- - Clever escape of Henry of Navarre from prison--Margaret’s - secret fancy for him--Her personal appearance at this - period--Marriage of Henry and Margaret at St. Germain._ - -The most memorable events of Margaret’s public life date from this -period. Francis, who was determined to reconquer the Milanese, at -once made preparations for a new campaign. Louise of Savoy was again -appointed Regent of the kingdom, and as Francis’s wife, Claude, was -dying of consumption, the royal children were confided to the care of -Margaret, whose husband accompanied the army. Louise of Savoy at first -repaired to Lyons with her children, in order to be nearer to Italy, -but she and Margaret soon returned to Blois, where the Queen was -dying. Before the royal army had reached Milan Claude expired, and soon -afterwards Louise was incapacitated by a violent attack of gout, while -the children of Francis also fell ill. The little ones, of whom Margaret -had charge, consisted of three boys and three girls, the former being -Francis, the Dauphin, who died in 1536, Charles, Duke of Orleans, who -died in 1545, and Henry, Count of Angoulême, who succeeded his father on -the throne. The girls comprised Madeleine, afterwards the wife of -James V. of Scotland, Margaret, subsequently Duchess of Savoy, and the -Princess Charlotte. The latter was particularly beloved by her aunt -Margaret, who subsequently dedicated to her memory her poem _Le Miroir -de l’Ame Pécheresse_. While the other children recovered from their -illness, little Charlotte, as Margaret records in her letters to Bishop -Briçonnet, was seized “with so grievous a malady of fever and flux,” - that after a month’s suffering she expired, to the deep grief of her -aunt, who throughout her illness had scarcely left her side. - -This affliction was but the beginning of Margaret’s troubles. Soon -afterwards the Constable de Bourbon, in conjunction with Pescara -and Lannoy, avenged his grievances under the walls of Pavia. On this -occasion, as at Marignano, the Duke of Alençon commanded the French -reserves, and had charge of the fortified camp from which Francis, -listening to Bonnivet, sallied forth, despite the advice of his best -officers. The King bore himself bravely, but he was badly wounded and -forced to surrender, after La Palisse, Lescun, Bonnivet, La Trémoïlle, -and Bussy d’Amboise had been slain before his eyes. Charles of Alençon -was then unable to resist the advice given him to retreat, and thus save -the few Frenchmen who had escaped the arms of the Imperialists. With -four hundred lances he abandoned the camp, crossed the Ticino, and -reaching France by way of Piedmont, proceeded to Lyons, where he found -Louise of Savoy and Margaret. - -It has been alleged that they received him with harsh reproaches, and -that, unable to bear the shame he felt for his conduct, he died only a -few days after the battle. (1) - - 1 See Garnier’s _Histoire de France_, vol. xxiv.; Gaillard’s - _Histoire de France, &c_. Odolant Desnos, usually well - informed, falls into the same error, and asserts that when - the Duke, upon his arrival, asked Margaret to kiss him, she - replied, “Fly, coward! you have feared death. You might find - it in my arms, as I do not answer for myself.”--_Mémoires - historiques_, vol. ii. p. 253. - -There are several errors in these assertions, which a contemporary -document enables us to rectify. The battle of Pavia was fought on -February 14th, 1525, and Charles of Alençon did not die till April 11th, -more than a month after his arrival at Lyons. He was carried off in five -days by pleurisy, and some hours before his death was still able to rise -and partake of the communion. Margaret bestowed the most tender care -upon him, and the Regent herself came to visit him, the Duke finding -strength enough to say to her, “Madam, I beg of you to let the King know -that since the day he was made a prisoner I have been expecting nothing -but death, since I was not sufficiently favoured by Heaven to share his -lot or to be slain in serving him who is my king, father, brother, and -good master.” After kissing the Regent’s hand he added, “I commend to -you her who has been my wife for fifteen years, and who has been as good -as she is virtuous towards me.” Then, as Louise of Savoy wished to take -Margaret away, Charles turned towards the latter and said to her, “Do -not leave me.” - -The Duchess refused to follow her mother, and embracing her dying -husband, showed him the crucifix placed before his eyes. The Duke, -having summoned one of his gentlemen, M. de Chan-deniers, instructed him -to bid farewell on his part to all his servants, and to thank them for -their services, telling them that he had no longer strength to see them. -He asked God aloud to forgive his sins, received the extreme unction -from the Bishop of Lisieux, and raising his eyes to heaven, said -“Jesus,” and expired. (1) - -Whilst tending her dying husband, Margaret was also deeply concerned -as to the fate of her captive brother, for whom she always evinced the -warmest affection. Indeed, so close were the ties uniting Louise -of Savoy and her two children that they were habitually called the -“Trinity,” as Clement Marot and Margaret have recorded in their poems. -(2) - - 1 From a MS. poem in the Bibliothèque Nationale entitled - _Les Prisons_, probably written by William Philander or - Filandrier, a canon of Rodez. - - 2 See _OEuvres de Clément Marot_, 1731, vol. v. p. 274; and - A. Champoîlion-Figeac’s _Poésies de François Ier, &c_., - Paris, 1847, p. 80. - -In this Trinity Francis occupied the highest place; his mother called -him “her Cæsar and triumphant hero,” while his sister absolutely -reverenced him, and was ever ready to do his bidding. Thus the -intelligence that he was wounded and a prisoner threw them into -consternation, and they were yet undecided how to act when they received -that famous epistle in which Francis wrote--not the legendary words, -“All is lost save honour,” but--“Of all things there have remained to me -but honour and life, which is safe.” After begging his mother and sister -to face the extremity by employing their customary prudence, the King -commended his children to their care, and expressed the hope that God -would not abandon him. (1) This missive revived the courage of the -Regent and Margaret, for shortly afterwards we find the latter writing -to Francis: “Your letter has had such effect upon the health of Madame -[Louise], and of all those who love you, that it has been to us as a -Holy Ghost after the agony of the Passion.... Madame has felt so great -a renewal of strength, that whilst day and evening last not a moment is -lost over your business, so that you need have no grief or care about -your kingdom and children.” (2) - - 1 See extract from the Registers of the Parliament of Paris - (Nov. 10, 1525) in Dulaure’s _Histoire de Paris_, Paris, - 1837, vol. iii. p. 209; and Lalanne’s _Journal d’un - Bourgeois de Paris_, Paris, 1854, p. 234. The original of - the letter no longer exists, but the authenticity of the - text cannot be disputed, as all the more essential portions - are quoted in the collective reply of Margaret and Louise of - Savoy, which is still extant. See Champollion-Figeac’s - Captivité de François Ier, pp. 129, 130. - - 2 Génin’s _Nouvelles Lettres de la Peine de Navarre_, - Paris, 1842, p. 27. - -Louise of Savoy was indeed now displaying courage and ability. News -shortly arrived that the King had been transferred to Madrid, and -that Charles demanded most onerous conditions for the release of his -prisoner. At this juncture Francis wrote to his mother that he was very -ill, and begged of her to come to him. Louise, however, felt that she -ought not to accede to this request, for it would be jeopardising -the monarchy to place the Regent as well as the King of France in -the Emperor’s hands; accordingly she resolved that Margaret should go -instead of herself. - -The Baron of St. Blancard, general of the King’s galleys, who had -previously offered to rescue Francis while the latter was on his way to -Spain, received orders to make the necessary preparations for Margaret’s -voyage, of which she defrayed the expense, as is shown by a letter she -wrote to John Brinon, Chancellor of Alençon. In this missive she states -that the Baron of St. Blancard has made numerous disbursements on -account of her journey which are to be refunded to him, “so that he may -know that I am not ungrateful for the good service he has done me, for -he hath acquitted himself thereof in such a way that I have occasion to -be gratified.” (1) - - 1 Génin’s _Lettres de Marguerite, &c_., p. 193.--Génin’s - Notice, _ibid_., p. 19. - -Despite adverse winds, Margaret embarked on August 27th, 1525, at -Aigues-Mortes, with the President de Selves, the Archbishop of Embrun, -the Bishop of Tarbes, and a fairly numerous suite of ladies. The Emperor -had granted her a safe-conduct for six months, and upon landing in Spain -she hurried to Madrid, where she found her brother very sick both in -mind and body. She eagerly caressed and tended him, and with a good -result, as she knew his nature and constitution much better than the -doctors. To raise his depressed spirits she had recourse to religious -ceremonies, giving orders for an altar to be erected in the room where -he was lying. She then requested the Archbishop of Embrun to celebrate -mass, and received the communion in company of all the French retainers -about the prisoner. It is stated that the King, who for some hours had -given no sign of life, opened his eyes at the moment of the consecration -of the elements, and asked for the communion, saying, “God will cure me, -soul and body.” From this time forward he began to recover his health, -though he remained fretful on account of his captivity. - -It was a difficult task to obtain his release. The Court and the Emperor -were extremely polite, but Margaret soon recognised the emptiness of -their protestations of good-will. “They all tell me that they love the -King,” she wrote, “but I have little proof of it. If I had to do with -honest folks, who understand what honour is, I should not care, but it -is the contrary.” (1) - - 1 _Lettres de Marguerite, &c._, p. 21. - -She was not the woman to turn back at the first obstacle, however; -she began by endeavouring to gain over several high personages, and on -perceiving that the men avoided speaking with her on serious business, -she addressed herself to their mothers, wives, or daughters. In a letter -to Marshal de Montmorency, then with the King, she thus refers to the -Duke del Infantado, who had received her at his castle of Guadalaxara. -“You will tell the King that the Duke has been warned from the Court -that if he wishes to please the Emperor neither he nor his son is to -speak to me; but the ladies are not forbidden me, and to them I will -speak twofold.” (1) - -Throughout the negotiations for her brother’s release Margaret always -maintained the dignity and reserve fitting to her sex and situation. -Writing to Francis on this subject she says: “The Viceroy (Lannoy) has -sent me word that he is of opinion I should go and see the Emperor, but -I have told him through M. de Senlis that I have not yet stirred from my -lodging without being asked, and that whenever it pleases the Emperor to -see me I shall be found there.” (2) - - 1 _Lettres de Marguerite, &c_., p. 197. - - 2 _Captivité de François Ier_, p. 358. - -Margaret was repeatedly admitted to the Imperial council to discuss -the conditions of her brother’s ransom. She showed as much ability as -loftiness of mind on these occasions, and several times won Charles V. -himself and the sternest of his Ministers to her opinion. (1) - - 1 Brantôme states that the Emperor was greatly impressed and - astonished by her plain speaking. She reproached him for - treating Francis so harshly, declaring that this course - would not enable him to attain his ends. “For although he - (the King) might die from the effects of this rigorous - treatment, his death would not remain unpunished, as he had - children who would some day become men and wreak signal - vengeance.” “These words,” adds Brantôme, “spoken so bravely - and in such hot anger, gave the Emperor occasion for - thought, insomuch that he moderated himself and visited the - King and made him many fine promises, which he did not keep, - however.” With the Ministers Margaret was even more - outspoken; but we are told that she turned her oratorical - powers “to such good purpose that she rendered herself - agreeable rather than odious or unpleasant; the more readily - as she was also good-looking, a widow, and in the flower of - her age.”--_OEuvres de Brantôme_, 8vo, vol. v. (_Les Dames - illustres_). - -She highly favoured the proposed marriage between Francis and his -rival’s sister, Eleanor of Austria, detecting in this alliance the most -certain means of a speedy release. Eleanor, born at Louvain in 1498, -had in 1519 married Emanuel, King of Portugal, who died two years -afterwards. Since then she had been promised to the Constable de -Bourbon, but the Emperor did not hesitate to sacrifice the latter to his -own interests. - -He himself, being fascinated by Margaret’s grace and wit, thought of -marrying her, and had a letter sent to Louise of Savoy, plainly setting -forth the proposal. In this missive, referring to the Constable de -Bourbon, Charles remarked that “there were good matches in France in -plenty for him; for instance, Madame Renée, (1) with whom he might very -well content himself.” (2) These words have led to the belief that there -had been some question of a marriage between Margaret and the Constable; -however, there is no mention of any such alliance in the diplomatic -documents exchanged between France and Spain on the subject of the -King’s release. These documents comprise an undertaking to restore the -Constable his estates, and even to arrange a match for him in France, -(3) but Margaret is never mentioned. She herself, in the numerous -letters handed down to us, does not once refer to the famous exile, and -the intrigue described by certain historians and romancers evidently -rests upon no solid foundation. (4) - - 1 Renée, the younger daughter of Louis XII. and Anne of - Brittany, subsequently celebrated as Renée of Ferrara. - - 2 This letter is preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale, - Béthune MSS., No. 8496, fol. xiii. - - 3 _Captivité de Francois Ier, &c_., pp. 167-207. - - 4 Varillas is the principal historian who has mentioned - this supposed intrigue, which also furnished the subject of - a romance entitled _Histoire de Marguerite, Reine de - Navarre, &c._, 1696. - -After three months of negotiations, continually broken off and renewed, -Margaret and her brother, feeling convinced of Charles V.’s evil -intentions, resolved to take steps to ensure the independence of France. -By the King’s orders Robertet, his secretary, drew up letters-patent, -dated November 1525 by which it was decreed that the young Dauphin -should be crowned at once, and that the regency should continue in the -hands of Louise of Savoy, but that in the event of her death the same -power should be exercised by Francis’s “very dear and well-beloved only -sister, Margaret of France, Duchess of Alençon and Berry.” (1) However, -all these provisions were to be deemed null and void in the event of -Francis obtaining his release. - -It has been erroneously alleged that Margaret on leaving Spain took -this deed of abdication with her, and that the Emperor, informed of -the circumstance, gave orders for her to be arrested as soon as -her safe-conduct should expire. (2) However, it was the Marshal de -Montmorency who carried the deed to France, and Charles V. in ordering -the arrest of Margaret had no other aim than that of securing an -additional hostage in case his treaty with Francis should not be -fulfilled. - - 1 _Captivité de François 1er, &c._, p. 85. - - 2 Génin’s Notice in the _Lettres de Marguerite, &c._, p. - 25. - -Margaret, pressed by her brother, at last asked for authorisation to -leave Spain. By the manner in which the permission was granted she -perceived that the Emperor wished to delay rather than hasten her -journey. During November she wrote Francis a letter in which this -conviction was plainly expressed, and about the 19th of the month she -left Madrid upon her journey overland to France. - -At first she travelled very leisurely, but eventually she received -a message from her brother, advising her to hasten her speed, as the -Emperor, hoping that she would still be in Spain in January, when her -safe-conduct would expire, had given orders for her arrest. Accordingly, -on reaching Medina-Celi she quitted her litter and mounted on horseback, -accomplishing the remainder of her journey in the saddle. Nine or ten -days before the safe-conduct expired she passed Perpignan and reached -Salces, where some French nobles were awaiting her. - -Soon after her return to France she again took charge of the royal -children, who once more fell ill, this time with the measles, as -Margaret related in the following characteristic letter addressed to her -brother, still a prisoner in Spain:-- - -“My Lord,--The fear that I have gone through about your children, -without saying anything of it to Madame (Louise of Savoy), who was also -very ill, obliges me to tell you in detail the pleasure I feel at their -recovery. M. d’Angoulême caught the measles, with a long and severe -fever; afterwards the Duke of Orleans took them with a little fever; and -then Madame Madeleine without fever or pain; and by way of company the -Dauphin without suffering or fever. And now they all are quite cured and -very well; and the Dauphin does marvels in the way of studying, mingling -with his schooling a hundred thousand other occupations. And there is no -more question of passions, but rather of all the virtues; M. d’Orléans -is nailed to his book, and says that he wants to be good; but M. -d’Angoulême does more than the others, and says things that are to be -esteemed rather as prophecies than childish utterances, which you, my -lord, would be amazed to hear. Little Margot resembles myself; she will -not be ill; but I am assured here that she has very graceful ways, and -is getting prettier than ever Mademoiselle d’Angoulême (1) was.” - - 1 Génin’s _Lettres de Marguerite, &c_, p. 70. The - Mademoiselle d’Angoulême alluded to at the end of the letter - is Margaret herself. - -Francis having consented to the onerous conditions imposed by Charles -V., was at last liberated. On March 17th, 1526, he was exchanged for his -two elder sons, who were to serve as hostages for his good faith, and -set foot upon the territory of Beam. He owed Margaret a deep debt of -gratitude for her efforts to hasten his release, and one of his first -cares upon leaving Spain was to wed her again in a fitting manner. He -appears to have opened matrimonial negotiations with Henry VIII. of -England, (1) but, fortunately for Margaret, without result. She, it -seems, had already made her choice. There was then at the French Court -a young King, without a kingdom, it is true, but endowed with numerous -personal qualities. This was Henry d’Albret, Count of Beam, and -legitimate sovereign of Navarre, then held by Charles V. in defiance of -treaty rights. Henry had been taken prisoner with Francis at Pavia and -confined in the fortress there, from which, however, he had managed to -escape in the following manner. - -Having procured a rope ladder in view of descending from the castle, he -ordered Francis de Rochefort, his page, to get into his bed and feign -sleep. Then he descended by the rope, the Baron of Arros and a valet -following him. In the morning, when the captain on duty came to see -Henry, as was his usual custom, he was asked by a page to let the King -sleep on, as he had been very ill during the night. Thus the trick was -only discovered when the greater part of the day had gone by, and the -fugitives were already beyond pursuit. (2) - - 1 _Lettres de Marguerite, &c_, p. 31. - - 2 Olhagaray’s _Histoire de Faix, Beam, Navarre, &c_, - Paris, 1609. p. 487. - -As the young King of Navarre had spent a part of his youth at the French -Court, he was well known to Margaret, who apparently had a secret fancy -for him. He was in his twenty-fourth year, prepossessing, and extremely -brave. (1) There was certainly a great disproportion of age between -him and Margaret, but this must have served to increase rather than -attenuate her passion. She herself was already thirty-five, and -judging by a portrait executed about this period, (2) in which she -is represented in mourning for the Duke of Alençon, with a long -veil falling from her cap, her personal appearance was scarcely -prepossessing. - -The proposed alliance met with the approval of Francis, who behaved -generously to his sister. He granted her for life the enjoyment of -the duchies of Alençon and Berry, with the counties of Armagnac and Le -Perche and several other lordships. Finally, the marriage was celebrated -on January 24th, 1527, at St. Germain-en-Laye, where, as Sauvai records, -“there were jousts, tourneying, and great triumph for the space of eight -days or thereabouts.” (3) - - 1 He was born at Sanguesa, April 1503, and became King of - Navarre in 1517. - - - 2 This portrait is at the Bibliothèque Nationale in the - _Recueil de Portraits au crayon_ by Clouet, Dumonstier, &c. - (fol. 88). - - 3 _Antiquités de Paris_, vol. ii. p. 688. - - - - -III. - -_The retirement of King Henry to Beam--Margaret’s intercourse with -her brother--The inscription at Chambord--Margaret’s adventure with -Bonnivet--Margaret’s relations with her husband--Her opinions upon love -and conjugal fidelity--Her confinements and her children--The Court in -Beam and the refugee Reformers--Margaret’s first poems--Her devices, -pastorals, and mysteries--The embellishment of Pau--Margaret at table -and in her study--Reforms and improvements in Beam--Works of defence at -Navarreinx--Scheme of refortifying Sauveterre._ - -Some historians have stated that in wedding his sister to Henry -d’Albret, Francis pledged himself to compel Charles V. to surrender his -brother-in-law’s kingdom of Navarre. This, however, was but a political -project, of which no deed guaranteed the execution. Francis no doubt -promised Margaret to make every effort to further the restitution, and -she constantly reminded him of his promise, as is shown by several -of her letters. However, political exigencies prevented Francis from -carrying out his plans, and in a diplomatic document concerning the -release of the children whom Charles held as hostages the following -clause occurs: “Item, the said Lord King promises not to help or favour -the King of Navarre (although he has married his only and dear beloved -sister) in reconquering his kingdom.” (1) - -The indifference shown by Francis for the political fortunes of his -brother-in-law, despite the numerous and signal services the latter -had rendered him, justly discontented Henry, who at last resolved to -withdraw from the Court, where Montmorency, Brion, and several other -personages, his declared enemies, were in favour. Margaret apparently -had to follow her husband in his retirement, for Sainte-Marthe remarks: -“When the King of Navarre, disgusted with the Court, and seeing none of -the promises that his brother-in-law had made him realised, resolved to -withdraw to Beam, Margaret, although the keen air of the mountains -was hurtful to her health, and her doctors had threatened her with a -premature death if she persevered in braving the rigours of the climate, -preferred to put her life in peril rather than to fail in her duty by -not accompanying her husband.” (2) - - 1 Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. No. 8546 (Béthune), fol. 107. - - 2 _Oraison funèbre_, &c, p. 70. - -Various biographers express the opinion that this retirement took place -in 1529, shortly after the Peace of Cambray, and others give 1530 as the -probable date. Margaret, we find, paid a flying visit to Beam with her -husband in 1527; on January 7th, 1528, she was confined of her first -child, Jane, at Fontainebleau, and the following year she is found with -her little daughter at Longray, near Alençon. In 1530 she is confined at -Blois of a second child, John, Prince of Viana, who died at Alençon on -Christmas Day in the same year, when but five and a half months old. -Then in 1531 her letters show her with her mother at Fontainebleau; and -Louise of Savoy being stricken with the plague, then raging in -France, Margaret closes her eyes at Gretz, a little village between -Fontainebleau and Nemours, on September 22nd in that year. - -It was after this event that the King and Queen of Navarre determined -to proceed to Beam, but so far as Margaret herself is concerned, it is -certain that retirement was never of long duration whilst her brother -lived. She is constantly to be found at Alençon, Fontainebleau, and -Paris, being frequently with the King, who did not like to remain -separated from her for any length of time. He was wont to initiate her -into his political intrigues in view of availing himself of her keen -and subtle mind. Brantôme, referring to this subject, remarks that her -wisdom was such that the ambassadors who “spoke to her were greatly -charmed by it, and made great report of it to those of their nation on -their return; in this respect she relieved the King her brother, for -they (the ambassadors) always sought her after delivering the chief -business of their embassy, and often when there was important business -the King handed it over to her, relying upon her for its definite -resolution. She understood very well how to entertain and satisfy the -ambassadors with fine speeches, of which she was very lavish, and also -very clever at worming their secrets out of them, for which reason the -King often said that she helped him right well and relieved him of a -great deal.” (1) - - 1 _OEuvres de Brantôme_, 8vo, vol. v. p. 222. - -Margaret’s own letters supply proof of this. She is constantly to be -found intervening in state affairs and exercising her influence. She -receives the deputies from Basle, Berne, and Strasburg who came to Paris -in 1537 to ask Francis I. for the release of the imprisoned Protestants. -She joins the King at Valence when he is making preparations for a -fresh war against Charles V.; then she visits Montmorency at the camp of -Avignon, which she praises to her brother; next, hastening to Picardy, -when the Flemish troops are invading it, she writes from Amiens and -speaks of Thérouenne and Boulogne, which she has found well fortified. - -Francis, however, did not value her society and counsel solely -for political reasons; he was also fond of conversing with her on -literature, and at times they composed amatory verses together. -According to an oft-repeated tradition, one day at the Château of -Chambord, whilst Margaret was boasting to her brother of the superiority -of womankind in matters of love, the King took a diamond ring from his -finger and wrote on one of the window panes this couplet:-- - - - “Souvent femme varie, Bien fol est qui s’y fie.” (1) - - -Brantôme, who declares that he saw the inscription, adds, however, that -it consisted merely of three words, “Toute femme varie” (all women are -fickle), inscribed in _large_ letters at the side of the window. (2) He -says nothing of any pane of glass (all window panes were then extremely -_small_) or of a diamond having been used; (3) and in all probability -Francis simply traced these words with a piece of chalk or charcoal on -the side of one of the deep embrasures, which are still to be seen in -the windows of the château. - - 1 “Woman is often fickle, - Crazy indeed is he who trusts her.” - - 2 _Vies des Dames galantes_, Disc. iv. - - 3 The practice of cutting glass with diamonds does not seem - to have been resorted to until the close of the sixteenth - century. See _Les Subtiles et Plaisantes Inventions de J. - Prévost_, Lyons, 1584, part i. pp. 30, 31. - -Margaret carried her complaisance for her brother so far as to excuse -his illicit amours, and she was usually on the best of terms with his -favourites. (1) It has been asserted that improper relations existed -between the brother and sister, but this charge rests solely upon -an undated letter from her to Francis, which may be interpreted in a -variety of ways. Count de la Ferrière, in his introduction to Margaret’s -record of her expenditure, (2) expresses the opinion that it was penned -in 1525, prior to her hasty departure from Spain; while M. Le Roux de -Lincy assigns it to a later date, remarking that it was probably written -during one of the frequent quarrels which arose between Margaret’s -brother and her husband. However, they are both of opinion that the -letter does not bear the interpretation which other writers have placed -upon it. (3) - - 1 E. Fournier’s _L’Esprit dans l’Histoire_, Paris, - 1860, p. 132 _et seq_. - - 2 _Livre de Dépenses de Marguerite d’Angoulême, &c_. - (Introduction). - - 3 See _Lettres de Marguerite, &c._, p. 246. - -The only really well-authenticated love intrigue in which Margaret was -concerned--and in that she played a remarkably virtuous part--was her -adventure with the Admiral de Bonnivet, upon which the fourth story of -the _Heptameron_ is based. (1) She was certainly unfortunate in both her -marriages. Her life with the Duke of Alençon has already been spoken of; -and as regards her second union, although contracted under apparently -favourable auspices, it failed to yield Margaret the happiness she had -hoped for. But four years after its celebration she wrote to the Marshal -de Montmorency: “Since you are with the King of Navarre, I have no fear -but that all will go well, provided you can keep him from falling -in love with the Spanish ladies.” (2) And again: “My nephew, I have -received the letters you wrote to me, by which I have learnt that you -are a much better relation than the King of Navarre is a good husband, -for you alone have given me news of the King (Francis) and of him, -without his being willing to give pleasure to a poor wife, big with -child, by writing a single word to her.” (3) - - 1 Particulars concerning this adventure will be found in - the notes to Tale iv., and also in the Appendix to the - present volume (C). - - 2 _Lettres de Marguerite, &c_., p. 246. - - 3 _Ibid._, p. 248. - -In another letter written to the Marshal at the same period she says: -“If you listen to the King of Navarre, he will make you commit so many -disorders that he will ruin you.” (1) Perhaps these words should not -be taken literally; still they furnish cause for reflection when it -is remembered that they were written by a woman just turned forty -concerning her husband who was not yet thirty years old. - -Margaret’s views upon love and the affinity of souls were somewhat -singular, but they indicate an elevated and generous nature. In several -passages of the _Heptameron_ she has expressed her opinion on these -matters, ardently defending the honour of her sex and condemning -those wives who show themselves indulgent as regards their husbands’ -infidelities. (2) She blames those who sow dissension between husbands -and wives, leading them on to blows; (3) and when some one asked her -what she understood perfect love to be, she made answer, “I call perfect -lovers those who seek some perfection in the object of their love, be -it beauty, kindness, or good grace, tending to virtue, and who have such -high and honest hearts that they will not even for fear of death do base -things that honour and conscience blame.” - - 1 _Lettres de Marguerite, &c_, p. 251. - - 2 Epilogue of Tale xxxvii. - - 3 Epilogue of Tale xlvi. - -In reference to this subject of conjugal fidelity a curious story is -told of Margaret. One day at Mont-de-Marsan, upon seeing a young man -convicted of having murdered his father being led to execution, she -remarked to those about her that it was very wrong to put to death a -young fellow who had not committed the crime imputed to him. It -was pointed out to her that the judges had only condemned him upon -conclusive proofs and the acknowledgments that he himself had made. -Margaret, however, persisted in her remark, whereupon some of her -intimates begged of her to justify it, for it seemed to them at least -singular. “I do not doubt,” she replied, “that this poor wretch killed -his mother’s husband, but he certainly did not kill his own father.” (1) - -Besides being unfortunate as regards her husbands, Margaret was also -denied a mother’s privileges. She experienced great suffering at her -confinements, (2) and on two occasions she was delivered of still-born -infants of the female sex. - - 1 Gabriel de Minut’s _De la Beauté, Discours divers, &c._, - Lyons, 1587. p. 74. - - 2 _Nouvelles Lettres de Marguerite_, pp. 84 and 93. - -She had centred many hopes upon her little boy, John, of whom she was -confined without accident, but he died, as already stated, in infancy, -and this misfortune was a great shock to her, though she tried to -conceal it by having the Te Deum sung at the funeral in lieu of the -ordinary service, and by setting up in the streets of Alençon the -inscription, “God gave him, God has taken him away.” However, from that -time forward she never laid aside her black dress, though later on -she wore it trimmed with marten’s fur. Her best known portrait (1) -represents her attired in this style with the quaint Bearnese cap, which -she had also adopted, set upon her head. - - 1 Bibliothèque Nationale, _Recueil de Portraits au crayon, - &c._, fol. 46. - -Not only did Margaret lose her son by death, but she was prevented from -enjoying the companionship of her daughter Jane. Francis, who never once -lost sight of his own interests, deemed it advisable to possess himself -of this child, who was the heiress to the throne of Navarre. Accordingly -when Jane was but two years old she was sent by the King to the Château -of Plessis-lès-Tours, where she was carefully brought up in strict -seclusion. - -To the fact that Margaret was never really happy with either of her -husbands, and that she was precluded from discharging a mother’s duties, -one may ascribe, in part, her fondness for gathering round her a Court -in which divines, scholars, and wits prominently figured. The great -interest which she took in religious matters, as is shown by so many of -her letters, (1) led her to shelter many of the persecuted Reformers in -Beam; others she saved from the stake, and frequently in writing to -the King and Marshal de Montmorency she begs for the release of some -imprisoned heretic. - - 1 One of these letters, written by her either to Philiberta - of Savoy, Duchess of Nemours, or to Charlotte d’Orléans, - Duchess of Nemours, both of whom were her aunts, may be thus - rendered in English: “My aunt, on leaving Paris to escort - the King, Monsieur de Meaux (Bishop Briçonnet), sent me the - Gospels in French, translated by Fabry, word for word, which - he says we should read with as much reverence and as much - preparation to receive the Spirit of God, such as He has - left it us in His Holy Scriptures, as when we go to receive - it in the form of Sacrament. And inasmuch as Monsieur de - Villeroy has promised to deliver them to you, I have - requested him to do so, for these words (the Gospels) must - not fall into evil hands. I beg, my aunt, that if by their - means God grants you some grace, you will not forget her who - is above all else your good niece and sister, Margaret.” - Fabry’s translation of the Gospels was made in 1523-24. - -Margaret’s religious views frequently caused dissension between her and -her husband, in whose presence she abstained from giving expression to -them. Hilarion de Coste mentions that “King Henry having one day been -informed that a form of prayer and instruction contrary to that of -his fathers was held in the chamber of the Queen, his wife, entered it -intending to chastise the minister, and finding that he had been hurried -away, the remains of his anger fell upon his wife, who received a blow -from him, he remarking, ‘Madam, you want to know too much about it,’ and -he at once sent word of the matter to King Francis.” - -It was at Nérac that most of the divines protected by Margaret found a -refuge from the persecutions of the Sorbonne. Here she kept court in -a castle of which there now only remains a vaulted fifteenth-century -gallery formerly belonging to the northern wing. Nérac has, however, -retained intact a couple of quaint mediaeval bridges, which Margaret -must have ofttimes crossed in her many journeyings. Moreover, the -townsfolk still point out the so-called Palace of Marianne, said to have -been built by Margaret’s husband for one of his mistresses, and also the -old royal baths, which the Queen no doubt frequented. - -It was at the castle of Nérac that Margaret’s favourite protégé, the -venerable Lefèvre d’Étaples, died at the age of one hundred and one, in -the presence of his patroness, to whom before expiring he declared that -he had never known a woman carnally in his life. However, he regretfully -added that in his estimation he had been guilty of a greater sin, for -he had neglected to lay down his life for his faith. Another partisan of -the Reform, Gerard Roussel, whom Margaret had almost snatched from the -stake and appointed Bishop of Oloron, had no occasion to express any -such regret. His own flock speedily espoused the doctrines of the -Reformation, but when he proceeded to Mauléon and tried to preach there, -the Basques refused to listen to him, and hacked the pulpit to pieces, -the Bishop being precipitated upon the flagstones, and so grievously -injured that he died. - -Beside the divines who sought an asylum at Nérac, there were various -noted men of letters, foremost among whom we may class the Queen’s two -secretaries, Clement Marot, the poet, and Peter Le Maçon, the translator -of Boccaccio’s _Decameron_. This translation was undertaken at the -Queen’s request, as Le Maçon states in his dedication to her, and it -has always been considered one of the most able literary works of the -period. With Marot and Le Maçon, but in the more humble capacity of -valet, at the yearly wages of one hundred and ten livres, there came the -gay Bonaventure Despériers, the author of _Les Joyeux Devis_; (1) other -writers, such as John Frotté, John de la Haye and Gabriel Chapuis, were -also among Margaret’s retainers. - - 1 _Livre de Dépenses de Marguerite d’Angoulême_. - -She herself had long practised the writing of verses. It was in 1531, -and at Alençon, that she issued her first volume of poems, the _Miroir -de l’Ame Pécheresse_, (1) which created a great stir at the time, for -when it was re-issued in Paris by Augereau in 1533 (2) the Sorbonne -denounced it as unorthodox, and Margaret would have been branded as -a heretic if Francis had not intervened and ordered the Rector of the -Sorbonne to withdraw the decree censuring his sister’s work. Nor did -that content the King, for he caused Noël Béda, the syndic of the -Faculty of Theology, to be arrested and confined in a dungeon at Mont -St. Michel, where he perished miserably. - - 1 Brunet’s _Manual_, 4th ed., vol. iii. p. 275. - - 2 A second edition also appeared at Alençon in the same - year. - -Margaret thus gained the day, but the annoyance she had been subjected -to doubtless taught her to be prudent, for although she steadily went -on writing, sixteen years elapsed before any more of her poems were -published. In the meantime various manuscript copies, some of which are -still in existence, were made of them, notably one of the poem called -“Débat d’Amour” by Margaret, and re-christened “La Coche” by her -secretary, John de la Haye, when he subsequently published it in the -_Marguerites de la Marguerite_. This manuscript is enriched with eleven -curious miniatures, the last of which represents the Queen handing -the volume bound in white velvet (1) to the Duchess of Etampes, her -brother’s mistress, whose qualities the poem extols. The Queen of -Navarre was on the best of terms with this favourite, to whom in one of -her letters she recommends certain servants. - -Margaret was not only given to versifying, but was fond of’ framing -devices, which she inscribed upon her books and furniture. At one time -she adopted as her device a marigold turning towards the sun’s rays, -with the motto, “Non inferiora secutus,” implying that she turned -“all her acts, thoughts, will, and affections towards the great Sun of -Justice, God Almighty.” (2) - - 1 From the Queen’s _Livre de Dépenses_, published by M. de - la Ferrière, we learn that this MS., with the miniatures and - binding, cost Margaret fifty golden crowns. It was formerly - in the possession of M. Jérôme Pichon, and was afterwards - acquired by M. Didot, at the sale of whose library it - realised £804. The MS. was recently in the possession of M. - de La Roche-la-Carelle. - - 2 Claude Paradin’s _Dévises héroïques_, Lyons, 1557, p. 41. - -In her _Miroir de l’Ame Pécheresse_, previously referred to, there -figures another device composed merely of the three words “Ung pour -tout;” and in the manuscript of “La Coche” presented to the Duchess of -Etampes, the motto “Plus vous que moys” is inscribed beneath each of the -miniatures. Margaret also composed a series of devices for some jewels -which her brother presented to his favourite, Madame de Châteaubriant. -Respecting these Brantôme tells the following curious anecdote:-- - -“I have heard say, and hold on good authority, that when King Francis I. -had left Madame de Châteaubriant, his favourite mistress, to take Madame -d’Etampes, as one nail drives out another, Madame d’Etampes begged the -King to take back from the said Madame de Châteaubriant all the finest -jewels that he had given her, not on account of their cost and value, -for pearls and precious stones were not then so fashionable as they have -been since, but for the love of the fine devices that were engraved and -impressed upon them; which devices the Queen of Navarre, his sister, had -made and composed, for she was a mistress in such matters. - -“King Francis granted the request, and promised that he would do it. -Having with this intent sent a gentleman to Madame de Châteaubriant to -ask for the jewels, she at once feigned illness, and put the gentleman -off for three days, when he was to have what he asked for. However, out -of spite, she sent for a goldsmith, and made him melt down all these -jewels without exception, and without having any respect for the -handsome devices engraved upon them. And afterwards, when the said -gentleman returned, she gave him all the jewels converted into gold -ingots. - -“‘Go,’ said she, ‘and take these to the King, and tell him that since -he has been pleased to take back from me that which he had given me -so freely, I restore it and send it back in golden ingots. As for the -devices, I have impressed them so firmly on my mind and hold them -so dear in it, that I could not let any one have and enjoy them save -myself.’ - -“When the King had received all this, the ingots and the lady’s remark, -he only said, ‘Take her back all. What I did was not for the value, for -I would have restored her that twofold, but for the love of the devices, -and since she has thus destroyed them, I do not want the gold, and send -it back. She has shown in this matter more courage and generosity than -it would have been thought could come from a woman.’” (1) - -Besides writing verses and framing devices, Margaret, as Brantôme tells -us, “often composed comedies and moralities, which were in those days -styled pastorals, and which she had played by the young ladies of her -Court.” (2) - - 1 _OEuvres de Brantôme_, 8vo, vol. vii. p. 567. - - 2 _Ibid._, 8vo, vol. v. p. 219. - -Hilarion de Coste states, moreover, that “she composed a tragi-comic -translation of almost the whole of the New Testament, which she caused -to be played before the King, her husband, having assembled with this -object some of the best actors of Italy; and as these buffoons are only -born to give pleasure and make time pass away, in order to amuse the -company they invariably introduced _rondeaux_ and _virelais_ against the -ecclesiastics, especially the monks and village priests.” (1) - - 1 M. Le Roux de Lincy points out that this statement is - exaggerated, for Margaret, instead of turning the whole of - the New Testament into verse, merely wrote four Mysteries - which mainly dealt with the childhood of Christ. - -These performances took place at the Château of Pau, which Margaret and -her husband seem to have preferred to that of Nérac, though political -reasons often compelled them to fix their abode at the latter. Pau, -however, possessed the advantage of a mild climate, necessary for -Margaret’s health, besides being delightfully situated on the Bearnese -Gave, the view from the château extending over a fertile valley limited -by the snow-capped Pyrenees. There had been a château at Pau as early -as the tenth century, but the oldest portions of the structure now -subsisting date from the time of Edward III., when Pau was the capital -of the celebrated Gaston-Phoebus. The château was considerably enlarged -and embellished in the fifteenth century, but it was not until after -Margaret’s marriage with Henry d’Albret that the more remarkable -decorative work was executed. Upon leaving Nérac to reside at Pau, -Margaret summoned a number of Italian artists and confided the -embellishment of the château to them.(1) - -It was not, however, merely the château which Margaret beautified -at Pau. Already at Alençon she had laid out a charming park, which a -contemporary poet called a terrestrial paradise,(2) and upon coming -to reside at Pau she transformed the surrounding woods into delightful -gardens, pronounced to be the finest then existing in Europe.(3) - - 1 Some of the doors and windows of the château are - elaborately ornamented in the best style of the Renaissance, - whilst the grand staircase, although dating from Margaret’s - time, has vaulted arches, sometimes in the Romanesque and at - others in the Gothic style. Entwined on the friezes are the - initials H and M (Henry and Margaret), occasionally - accompanied by the letter R, implying _Rex_ or _Regina_. On - the first floor of the chateau is the bedroom occupied by - Margaret’s husband, remarkable for its Renaissance chimney- - piece, and also a grand reception hall, now adorned with - tapestry made for Francis I. in Flanders. It was in this - latter room that the Count of Montgomery--the same who had - thrust out the eye of Henry II. at a tournament, and thereby - caused that monarch’s death--acting at the instigation of - Margaret’s daughter Jane, assembled the Catholic noblemen of - Beam on August 24, 1569, and, after entertaining them with a - banquet, had them treacherously massacred. Bascle de - Lagrèze’s _Château de Pau_, Paris, 1854. - - 2 _Le Recueil de l’Antique pré-excellence de Gaule, &c._, by - G. Le Roville, Paris, 1551 (fol. 74). - - 3 Hilarion de Coste’s _Vies et Éloges des Dames illustres, - &c._, vol. ii. p. 272. - -Some idea of their appearance may be gained from a couple of the -miniatures adorning a curious manuscript catechism composed for Margaret -and now in the Arsenal Library at Paris.(1) - - 1 _Manuscrits théologiques français_, No. 60, _Initiatoire - Instruction en la Religion chrétienne, &c_. In one of these - miniatures the Saviour is represented carrying the cross, - followed by Henry of Navarre, his brother Charles d’Albret, - Margaret, and other personages, all of whom bear crosses, - whilst in the background are some pleasure-grounds with a - castle, a little waterfall, and a lake. Another miniature in - the same manuscript shows King Henry of Navarre with a - flower in his hand, which he seems to be offering to the - Queen, who stands in the background among a party of - courtiers. The King wears a surtout of cloth of gold, edged - with ermine, over a blue jerkin, and a red cap with a white - feather. Margaret is also arrayed in cloth of gold, but with - a black cap and wimple. She is standing in a garden enclosed - by a railing, and adorned with a fountain in the form of a - temple which rises among groves and arbours. Beyond a white - crenellated wall is a castle which has been identified with - that of Pau. On fol. 1 of the same MS. the artist has - depicted Queen Margaret’s escutcheon, by which we find that - she quartered the arms of France with those of Navarre, - Aragon, Castile, Leon, Beam, Bigorre, Evreux, and Albret. - -The Court which Margaret kept in turns at Alençon, Nérac, and Pau does -not appear to have been so sumptuous and gay as some of her biographers -assert. Brantôme mentions that the Queen’s two tables were always served -with frugality, and Sainte-Marthe states that “she talked at dinner and -supper now of medicine, of food wholesome or unwholesome for the human -body, and of objects of nature with Masters Schyron, Cormier, and -Esterpin, her expert and learned doctors, who carefully watched her eat -and drink, as is done with princes; now she would speak of history or of -the precepts of philosophy with other very erudite personages, with whom -her house was never unfurnished; at another time she would enter into -conversation on her faith and the Christian religion with Monsieur -Gerard, Bishop of Oloron. Altogether there was not a single moment -that was not employed by her in honest, pleasant, and useful -conversation.” (1) - -The same panegyrist tells us of Margaret’s favourite occupations, -mentioning that when she was alone in her room she more often held a -book in her hand than a distaff, a pen than a spindle, and the ivory of -her tablets than a needle. He then adds: “And if she applied herself to -tapestry or other needlework, such as was to her a pleasant occupation, -she had beside her some one who read to her, either from a historian or -a poet, or some other notable and useful author; or else she dictated -some meditation which was written down.” (2) - - 1 _Oraison funèbre, &c._, p. 60. - - 2 _Ibid._, p. 68. - -Margaret’s time was far from being wholly occupied in this manner, -for she actively assisted her husband in carrying out improvements and -reforms in Beam. The result was that the country, naturally good and -fertile, but left in bad condition, uncultivated and sterile through the -carelessness of its inhabitants, soon changed its appearance owing to -the efforts of Henry and his wife. From all the provinces of France -labourers were attracted who settled there and improved and fertilised -the fields.(1) - - 1 _Vies el Éloges des Dames illustres_, vol. ii. p. 272. - -Henry d’Albret also devoted himself to the placing of the country in a -proper state of defence, and fortified several of the towns. Navarreinx, -commanding the valley of the Gave of Oloron, was virtually rebuilt by -him and transformed into a perfect stronghold, as was evidenced during -the religious wars, when it successfully withstood the artillery -of Terrade, the Catholic commander. Long afterwards, when Vauban -inaugurated his new system of fortification, he came to Navarreinx, and -on seeing the ramparts raised by Margaret’s husband was so favourably -impressed, that instead of levelling them to the ground he contented -himself with adding to them and making various improvements. Henry -d’Albret was also anxious to refortify Sauveterre, which the Prince of -Orange, with one of the Imperial armies, had captured in 1523, when he -half-demolished the old castle of Montreal, then the most formidable -citadel in Beam. However, as time and money were lacking, Henry had to -abandon his plans, and the ruins left by the Imperialists, the ivy-clad -keep, and mutilated bridge over the Gave soon fell into irremediable -decay.(1) - - 1 M. Paul Perret’s _Pyrénées françaises_, vol. ii. p. 303. - - - - -IV. - - _Margaret’s attachment to her daughter--Refusal of Jane to - marry the Duke of Clevés--Intervention of Margaret--The - wedding at Châtelherault and the fall of the Constable de - Montmorency--Margaret and her husband at Caulerets--The - “Heptameron”--Illness and death of Francis I.--Margaret’s - anxiety and grief--Her “Marguerites de la Marguerite”--Jane - d’Albret’s second marriage--Death of Margaret at Odos or - Audaux----Her funeral at Lescar--Destruction of her tomb_. - -Whilst Margaret was living amongst divines and scholars at Pau and -Nérac, her mind, as her letters indicate, constantly turned to her -daughter Jane, whom Aimée de la Fayette, wife of the Bailiff of Caen, -was bringing up at Plessis-lès-Tours. Margaret was only able to see Jane -at rare intervals during some of her trips to France, and she was mainly -indebted to sympathising friends for news of the little Princess’s -condition and health. All her maternal tenderness was concentrated on -this daughter, and whenever the child was ailing she became distracted. - -Sainte-Marthe records that in December 1537, while Margaret was -sojourning in Paris, her daughter, then scarcely nine years old, fell -seriously ill at the royal house of Plessis-lès-Tours; and as it -was rumoured amongst the Court, then at Paris, that the Princess was -threatened with death, her virtuous mother, Margaret, at about four -o’clock in the evening, ordered her litter to be brought, saying that -she would go and see her daughter, and that all her people should -prepare to start. There was nothing ready, the officials and servants -were absent, and scattered about the town of Paris and the neighbouring -villages. It was already dark, for this was during the shortest days -of the year, the weather too was adverse on account of the rain, and -neither her litter nor her baggage mules were at hand. Seeing this, the -courageous Queen borrowed the litter of Madame Margaret, her niece,(1) -got in it, and contenting herself with scant escort, started from Paris -and went as far as Bourg-la-Reine. - - 1 The daughter of Francis I., subsequently Duchess of Savoy. - -“When they had arrived there she did not alight at her lodgings, but -went straight to the church, which she at once entered, saying to -those about her, that her heart told her I know not what concerning her -daughter’s fate, and affectionately begging them all to withdraw and -leave her alone for an hour in the church. All obeyed and in great -uneasiness waited for their mistress at the church door; the Sénéchale -de Poitou,(1) a very faithful lady, and very solicitous about Margaret, -alone entering with her. Margaret having gone in, kneels down before -the image of Jesus crucified, prays to God from the depths of her heart, -sighs, weeps, confesses all her transgressions, and laying to herself -alone the cause of her daughter’s illness, humbly asks pardon, and begs -that the sufferer’s restoration to health may be granted. After this -act of faith Margaret felt relieved, and she had scarcely arrived at -her lodgings when the Bishop of Mende came to announce to her that her -daughter was in the way of recovery.” (2) - - 1 Brantôme’s grandmother. - - 2 Oraison funèbre, &c, p. 38. - -When Jane was barely twelve years old Charles V. asked her in marriage -for his son Philip, but Francis, who was by no means anxious to see the -Spaniards established on the northern side of the Pyrenees, preferred -that the girl should marry William III., Duke of Cleves. It has -frequently been asserted that Francis on this occasion exercised -compulsion not only upon his niece, but also upon the King and Queen of -Navarre, who vainly protested against this abuse of power. The truth -is, that Margaret not only favoured the marriage, but threatened to have -Jane whipped if she persisted in her refusal. Moreover, the little bride -having declared to Francis I. that she protested against the alliance, -Margaret wrote to her brother as follows:-- - -“My Lord, in my extreme desolation, I have only one single comfort, it -is that of knowing with certainty that neither the King of Navarre nor -myself have ever had any other wish or intention than that of obeying -you, not only as regards a marriage, but in whatever you might order. -But now, my lord, having heard that my daughter, neither recognising the -great honour you do her in deigning to visit her, nor the obedience that -she owes you, nor that a girl should have no will of her own, has spoken -to you so madly as to say to you that she begged of you she might not be -married to M. de Cleves, I do not know, my lord, either what I ought to -think of it, or what I ought to say to you about it, for I am grieved to -the heart, and have neither relative nor friend in the world from whom -I can seek advice or consolation. And the King of Navarre is on his -part so amazed and grieved at it that I have never seen him before so -provoked. I cannot imagine whence comes this great boldness, of which -she had never spoken to us. She excuses herself towards us in that she -is more intimate with you than with ourselves, but this intimacy should -not give rise to such boldness, without ever as I know seeking advice -from any one, for if I knew any creature who had put such an idea into -her head, I would make such a demonstration that you, my lord, would -know that this madness is contrary to the will of the father and mother, -who have never had, and never will have, any other than your own.” (1) - -The rebellion of Jane did not prevent the marriage, which was solemnised -at Châtelherault on July 15th, 1540. According to some authorities, -Francis was so determined upon the alliance that he required the Duke -of Cleves to enter his bride’s bed in the presence of witnesses, so that -the marriage should be deemed beyond annulment.(2) - - 1 _Nouvelles Lettres, &c._, p. 176. - - 2 Henri Martin’s _Histoire de France_. The marriage, - however, was not really consummated (_Nouvelles Lettres, - &c._, pp. 236, 237), and it was eventually annulled by Pope - Paul III., to whom Francis applied for a divorce when the - Duke of Cleves deserted his cause for that of Charles V. - -It was at Châtelherault on this occasion that Margaret triumphed over -the Constable de Montmorency, who in earlier years had been her -close friend, and with whom she had carried on such a voluminous -correspondence. Montmorency had requited her good services with -ingratitude, repeatedly endeavouring to estrange Francis from her. -Brantôme gives an instance of this in the following passage:--“I have -heard related,” he says, “by a person of good faith that the Constable -de Montmorency, then in the highest favour, speaking of this matter -of religion one day with the King, made no difficulty or scruple about -telling him, that ‘if he really wished to exterminate the heretics -of his kingdom, he ought to begin at his Court and with his nearest -relatives, mentioning the Queen his sister,’ to which the King replied, -‘Do not speak of her; she loves me too much. She will never believe -anything save what I believe, and will never take up a religion -prejudicial to the State.’” (1) - - 1 _OEuvres de Brantôme_, 8vo, vol. v. (_Dames illustres_), - p. 219. - -As soon as Margaret became aware of Montmorency’s conduct she ceased -all correspondence with him and steadily endeavoured to effect his -overthrow, which was brought about on the occasion of Jane’s marriage. -“It was necessary to carry the little bride to the church,” says -Brantôme, “as she was laden with jewels and a dress of gold and silver, -and owing to this and the weakness of her body, was not able to walk. So -the King ordered the Constable to take his little niece and carry her to -the church, at which all the Court were greatly astonished, for at such -a ceremony this was a duty little suited and honourable for a Constable, -and might very well have been given to another. However, the Queen of -Navarre was in no way displeased, but said, ‘Behold! he who wished to -ruin me with the King my brother now serves to carry my daughter to -church.’ The Constable,” adds Brantôme, “was greatly displeased at the -task, and sorely vexed to serve as such a spectacle to every one; and he -began to say, ‘It is now all over with my favour. Farewell to it.’ -Thus it happened, for after the wedding festival and dinner he had his -dismissal and left at once.” (1) - -After the marriage of her daughter Margaret returned to Paris, and -thence repaired to Mont-de-Marsan to spend the winter of 1540-41. Late -in the following spring she went to Cauterets in the Pyrenees to take -the baths. Writing during Lent to her brother she states that her -husband having had a fall will repair to Cauterets by the advice of his -doctors,(2) and that she intends to accompany him to prevent him from -worrying and to transact his business for him, “for when one is at the -baths one must live like a child without any care.” (3) - - 1 _OEuvres de Brantôme_, 8vo, vol. v. (_Dames illustres_), - p. 220. - - 2 Henry d’Albret had already undergone treatment at the - Pyrenean baths after his escape from Pavia, when, however, - he stayed at Eaux-Bonnes. - - 3 Génin’s _Nouvelles Lettres, &c._, p. 189. - -This was not her only motive in going to Cauterets apparently, for in -a letter to Duke William of Cleves, her daughter’s husband, dated April -1541, she states that as she is suffering from a _caterre_ which “has -fallen upon half her neck,” and compels her to keep her bed, the doctors -have advised her to take “the natural baths,” and hope that she will -be cured by the end of May, providing she follows all their -prescriptions.(1) - - 1 A. de Ruble’s _Mariage de Jeanne d’ Albret_, - Paris, 1877, p. 86, et seq. - -That this visit to Cauterets left a deep impression upon the mind of -Margaret is evidenced by the work upon which her literary fame rests. -The scene selected for the prologue of the _Heptameron_ is Cauterets -and the surrounding country; still it is evident that the book was not -commenced upon the occasion referred to, for in the prologue Margaret -alludes to historical events which took place in 1543 and 1544, and she -speaks of them as being of recent occurrence at her time of writing. Now -we know that in April 1544 she met her brother at Alençon, and made a -long stay in the duchy, and the probability is that she commenced the -_Heptameron_ at that time. It was the work of several years, penned in a -desultory style whilst Margaret was travelling about her northern duchy -or her southern kingdom. Like all persons of high station, she journeyed -in a litter, and Brantôme informs us that her equipage was a modest one, -for “she never had more than three baggage-mules and six for her two -litters, though she had two, three, or four chariots for her ladies.” (1) -Brantôme--who it may be mentioned was brought up at Margaret’s Court -under the care of his grandmother, Louise de Daillon, wife of Andrew de -Vivonne, Seneschal of Poitou--also states that the Queen composed the -_Heptameron_ mainly “in her litter, while journeying about, for she had -more important occupations when she was at home. I have thus heard it -related by my grandmother, who always went with her in her litter as her -lady of honour, and held the escritoire with which she wrote, and she -set them (the stories) down in writing as speedily and skilfully as if -they had been dictated to her, if not more so.” (2) - - 1 Lalanne’s _OEuvres de Brantôme_, 1875, vol. ii. p. 214. - - 2 _Ibid_., vol. viii. p. 226. - -In 1545 and 1546 we find Margaret in Beam, whence she addresses New Year -epistles to her brother expressing her sorrow at being separated -from him. In the spring of the latter year she visits him at -Plessis-lès-Tours. The King of France--contrary to all tradition--enjoys -at this period as good health as the most robust man in his kingdom.(1) -In 1547 Margaret repairs to a convent at Tusson in the Angoumois to -spend Lent there, and soon afterwards is despatching courier after -courier to the Court at Rambouillet for news of Francis, who is dying. -Such is her anguish of suspense that she exclaims, “Whoever comes to -my door to announce to me the cure of the King my brother, were such a -messenger weary, tired, muddy, and dirty, I would embrace and kiss him -like the cleanest prince and gentleman in France; and if he lacked a bed -and could not find one to repose upon, I would give him mine, and would -sleep on the floor for the sake of the good news he brought me.” (2) - - 1 _Lettres de Marguerite, &c._, p. 473. - - 2 _OEuvres de Brantôme_, 8vo, vol. v. p. 233. - -No one, however, had the courage to tell her the truth. It was a poor -maniac who by her tears gave her to understand that the King was no -longer alive. Sainte-Marthe records the incident as follows: “Now the -day that Francis was taken away from us (Margaret herself has since told -me so), she thought whilst sleeping that she saw him looking pale, and -calling for her in a sad voice, which she took for a very evil sign; and -feeling doubtful about it, she sent several messengers to the Court to -ascertain the condition of the King her brother, but not a single one of -them returned to her. One day, her brother having again appeared to her -while she was asleep (he had already been dead fifteen days), (1) she -asked the members of her household if they had heard any news of the -King. - - 1 Francis I. died March 31, 1547. - -“They replied to her that he was very well, and she then went to the -church. On her way there she summoned Thomas le Coustellier, a young man -of good intelligence and her secretary, and as she was telling him the -substance of a letter that she wished to write to a Princess of the -Court, to obtain from her some news of the King’s health, she heard on -the other side of the cloister a nun, whose brain was somewhat turned, -lamenting and weeping loudly. Margaret, naturally inclined to pity, -hastened to this woman, asked her why she was weeping, and encouraged -her to tell her whether she wished for anything. Then the nun began to -lament still more loudly, and looking at the Queen, told her that she -was deploring her ill-fortune. When Margaret heard these words she -turned towards those who were with her, and said to them, ‘You were -hiding the King’s death from me, but the Spirit of God has revealed it -to me through this maniac.’ This said, she turned to her room, knelt -down, and humbly thanked the Lord for all the goodness He was pleased to -show her.” (1) - -After losing her brother, Margaret remained in retirement at the convent -of Tusson. She stayed there, says Brantôme, for four months, leading -a most austere life and discharging the duties of abbess. She still -continued in retirement on her return to Beam, mainly occupying herself -with literary work. It was in 1547, subsequent to the death of Francis, -that John de la Haye, her secretary, published at Lyons her _Marguerites -de la Marguerite_, poems which she had composed at various periods, and -which De la Haye probably transcribed at her dictation.(2) - - 1 _Oraison funèbre, &c._, p. 103. - - 2 Sainte-Marthe states that she would sit with two - secretaries, one on either side, and dictate poetry to the - one and letters to the other. - -Margaret’s daughter Jane was at this period at the Court of France, -living in extravagant style, as is shown by the letters in which -Margaret declares that the Princess’s expenditure is insupportable. She -herself spent but little money upon personal needs, though she devoted -considerable sums to charity. In October 1548 she emerged from her -seclusion to attend the second marriage of her daughter, who now became -the wife of Anthony de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme. From Moulins, where the -ceremony took place, Margaret repaired to the Court at Fontainebleau. -Here all was changed: there was a new King, and Diana of Poitiers -occupied the position of the Duchess of Etampes. After returning to Beam -for Christmas, Margaret spent the Lent of 1549 in retreat at Tusson, -where she apparently divided her time between prayer and literary -labour. She was still writing the _Heptameron_, as is shown by the -sixty-sixth tale, which chronicles an adventure that befell her daughter -and Anthony de Bourbon on their marriage trip during the winter of -1548-49. It may be noted, too, that the scene of the sixty-ninth story -is laid at the Castle of Odos near Tarbes, and as Margaret came to -reside at the castle in the autumn of 1549, this tale was probably -written during her sojourn there. Whilst adding fresh stories to the -_Heptameron_, she was not neglecting poetry, for from this period also -dates the _Miroir de Jésus Christ crucifié_, which Brother Olivier -published in 1556, stating that it was the Queen’s last work, and that -she had handed it to him a few days before her death. - -Margaret had long been in failing health and was growing extremely weak. -Brantôme, on the authority of his grandmother, states that when her -approaching death was announced to her, she found the monition a very -bitter one, saying that she was not yet so aged but that she might live -some years longer. She was then in her fifty-eighth year. Sainte-Marthe -relates that shortly before her death she saw in a dream a very -beautiful woman holding in her hand a crown of all sorts of flowers -which she showed to her, telling her that she would soon be crowned with -it.(1) - - 1 _Oraison funèbre, &c._, p. 104. - -She interpreted this dream as signifying that her end was near, and from -that day forward abandoned the administration of her property to the -King of Navarre, refusing to occupy herself with any other matter than -that of her approaching end. After dictating her will she fell into her -final illness, which lasted twenty days according to some authorities, -and eight according to others. It seized her one night at Odos whilst -she was watching a comet, which it was averred had appeared to notify -the death of Pope Paul III. “It was perhaps to presage her own,” naively -remarks Brantôme, who adds that while she was looking at the comet her -mouth suddenly became partially paralysed, whereupon her doctor, M. -d’Escuranis, led her away and made her go to bed. Her death took place -on December 21st, 1549, and just before expiring she grasped a crucifix -that lay beside her and murmured, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” (1) - -Although the King of Navarre had not always lived in perfect accord with -his wife, he none the less keenly felt the loss he had sustained by her -death. Olhagaray represents him when deprived of Margaret as no longer -showing the same firm purpose of life, but as sad, discontented, and -altering his plans at every trifle.(2) He gave orders that Margaret’s -remains should be interred in the Cathedral of Lescar, some four and a -half miles from the Château of Pau, with which it is said to have -been at that time connected by a subterranean passage. Several of the -Navarrese sovereigns had already been buried there, for the See was a -kind of primacy, the Bishops being _ex-officio_ presidents of the States -of Beam.(3) - - 1 M. Lalanne, in his edition of Brantôme’s works, maintains - that Margaret did not die at Odos, near Tarbes, but at - Audaux, near Orthez, basing this contention on the fact that - Brantôme calls the castle “Audos in Beam,” and that Odos is - in Bigorre. Tradition, however, has always pointed to the - latter locality, though, on the other hand, it is stated - that less than half a century after Margaret’s death Odos - was nothing but a ruin, and had long been in that condition. - In 1596 Henry IV. gave the property to John de Lassalle, by - whose descendants the château was restored (Bascle de - Lagrèze’s _Chateau de Pau, &c._). - - 2 _Histoire de Foix et de Béarn, &c._, p. 506. - - 3 Lescar having ceased to be a bishopric since 1790, its - church, which still exists, no longer ranks as a cathedral. - -It was in this quaint old cathedral church, dating, so archaeologists -assert, from the eleventh century, that Margaret’s remains were interred -with all due pomp and ceremony. The Duchess of Estouteville headed the -procession, followed by the Duke of Montpensier, the Duke of Nevers, -the Duke of Aumale, the Duke of Etampes, the Marquis of Maine, and M. de -Rohan. Then came the _grands deuils_ or chief mourners, led by the Duke -of Vendôme, and three lords carrying the crown, sceptre, and hand of -justice. The Viscount of Lavedan officiated as grand master of the -ceremonies, and special seats were assigned to the States of Navarre, -Foix, Beam, and Bigorre, and to the chancellor, counsellors, and barons -of the country; whilst on a platform surrounded by lighted tapers -there was displayed an effigy of the Queen robed in black.(1) After the -ceremony a banquet was served in accordance with Bearnese custom, the -chief mourners being invited to the Duke of Vendôme’s table, whilst the -others were served in different rooms.(2) - - 1 _Lettres de Marguerite (Pièces justificatives_. No. xi.). - - 2 Bascle de Lagrèze’s _Château de Pau, &c._ - -A few years later--in June 1555--the remains of King Henry, Margaret’s -husband, were in turn brought to Lescar for burial. The tombs of husband -and wife, however, have alike vanished, having been swept away during -the religious wars, when Lescar was repeatedly stormed and sacked, when -Huguenot and Catholic, in turn triumphant, vented their religious frenzy -upon the graves of their former sovereigns; and to-day the only tombs -to be found in the old cathedral are those of personages interred there -since the middle of the seventeenth century. - -January 1893. - - - - - -ON THE HEPTAMERON, - -WITH SOME NOTICE OF PRECEDENT COLLECTIONS OF TALES IN FRANCE, OF THE -AUTHOR, AND OF HER OTHER WORKS. - - -It is probable that every one who has had much to do with the study of -literature has conceived certain preferences for books which he knows -not to belong absolutely to the first order, but which he thinks to have -been unjustly depreciated by the general judgment, and which appeal to -his own tastes or sympathies with particular strength. One of such books -in my own case is _THE HEPTAMERON_ of Margaret of Navarre. I have read -it again and again, sometimes at short intervals, sometimes at longer, -during the lapse of some five-and-twenty years since I first met with -it. But the place which it holds in my critical judgment and in my -private affections has hardly altered at all since the first reading. -I like it as a reader perhaps rather more than I esteem it as a critic; -but even as a critic, and allowing fully for the personal equation, I -think that it deserves a far higher place than is generally accorded to -it. - -Three mistakes, as it seems to me, pervade most of the estimates, -critical or uncritical, of the _Heptameron_, the two first of old date, -the third of recent origin. The first is that it is a comparatively -feeble imitation of a great original, and that any one who knows -Boccaccio need hardly trouble himself to know Margaret of Navarre. The -second is that it is a loose if not obscene book, disgraceful for a lady -to have written (or at least mothered), and not very creditable for -any one to read. The third is that it is interesting as the gossip of -a certain class of modern newspapers is interesting, because it tells -scandal about distinguished personages, and has for its interlocutors -other distinguished personages, who can be identified without much -difficulty, and the identification of whom adds zest to the reading. All -these three seem to me to be mistakes of fact and of judgment. In -the first place, the _Heptameron_ borrows from its original literally -nothing but plan. Its stories are quite independent; the similarity of -name is only a bookseller’s invention, though a rather happy one; and -the personal setting, which is in Boccaccio a mere framework, has here -considerable substance and interest. In the second place, the accusation -of looseness is wildly exaggerated. There is one very coarse but not -in the least immoral story in the _Heptameron_; there are several broad -jests on the obnoxious cloister and its vices, there are many tales -which are not intended _virginibus puerisque_, and there is a pervading -flavour of that half-French, half-Italian courtship of married women -which was at the time usual everywhere out of England. The manners are -not our manners, and what may be called the moral tone is distinguished -by a singular cast, of which more presently. But if not entirely a book -for boys and girls, the _Heptameron_ is certainly not one which Southey -need have excepted from his admirable answer in the character of author -of “The Doctor,” to the person who wondered whether he (Southey) could -have daughters, and if so, whether they liked reading. “He has -daughters: they love reading: and he is not the man I take him for if -they are not ‘allowed to open’ any book in his library.” The last error, -if not so entirely inconsistent with intelligent reading of the book as -the first and second, is scarcely less strange to me. For, in the first -place, the identification of the personages in the framework of the -_Heptameron_ depends upon the merest and, as it seems to me, the idlest -conjecture; and, in the second, the interest of the actual -tittle-tattle, whether it could be fathered on A or B or not, is the -least part of the interest of the book. Indeed, the stories altogether -are, as I think, far less interesting than the framework. - -Let us see, therefore, if we cannot treat the _Heptameron_ in a -somewhat different fashion from that in which any previous critic, even -Sainte-Beuve, has treated it. The divisions of such treatment are not -very far to seek. In the first place, let us give some account of the -works of the same class which preceded and perhaps patterned it. In -the second, let us give an account of the supposed author, of her other -works, and of the probable character of her connection with this one. In -the third, without attempting dry argument, let us give some sketch of -the vital part, which we have called the framework, and some general -characteristics of the stories. And, in the fourth and last, let us -endeavour to disengage that peculiar tone, flavour, note, or whatever -word may be preferred, which, as it seems to me at least, at once -distinguishes the _Heptameron_ from other books of the kind, and -renders it peculiarly attractive to those whose temperament and -taste predisposes them to be attracted. For there is a great deal of -pre-established harmony in literature and literary tastes; and I have a -kind of idea that every man has his library marked out for him when he -comes into the world, and has then only got to get the books and read -them. - -Margaret herself refers openly enough to the example of the _Decameron_, -which had been translated by her own secretary, Anthony le Maçon, a -member of her literary coterie, and not improbably connected with the -writing or redacting of the _Heptameron_ itself. Nor were later Italian -tale-tellers likely to be without influence at a time when French was -being “Italianated” in every possible way, to the great disgust of some -Frenchmen. But the Italian ancestors or patterns need not be dealt with -here, and can be discovered with ease and pleasure by any one who wishes -in the drier pages of Dunlop, or in the more flowery and starry pages of -Mr. Symonds’ “History of the Renaissance in Italy.” The next few pages -will deal only with the French tale-tellers, whose productions before -Margaret’s days were, if not very numerous, far from uninteresting, and -whose influence on the slight difference of _genre_ which distinguishes -the tales before us from Italian tales was by no means slight. - -In France, as everywhere else, prose fiction, like prose of all kinds, -was considerably later in production than verse, and short tales of the -kind before us were especially postponed by the number, excellence, and -popularity of the verse _fabliaux_. Of these, large numbers have come -down to us, and they exactly correspond in verse to the tales of the -_Decameron_ and the _Heptameron_ in prose, except that the satirical -motive is even more strongly marked, and that touches of romantic -sentiment are rarer. This element of romance, however, appears -abundantly in the long prose versions of the Arthurian and other -legends, and we have a certain number of short prose stories of the -thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, of which the most famous is that -of _Aucassin et Nicolette_. These latter, however, are rather short -romances than distinct prose tales of our kind. Of that kind the first -famous book in French, and the only famous book, besides the one before -us, is the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_. The authorship of this book -is very uncertain. It purports to be a collection of stories told by -different persons of the society of Louis XI., when he was but Dauphin, -and was in exile in Flanders under the protection of the Duke of -Burgundy. But it has of late years been very generally assigned -(though on rather slender grounds of probability, and none of positive -evidence), to Anthony de la Salle, the best French prose writer of -the fifteenth century, except Comines, and one on whom, with an odd -unanimity, conjectural criticism has bestowed, besides his acknowledged -romance of late chivalrous society, _Petit Jehan de Saintré_ (a work -which itself has some affinities with the class of story before us), not -only the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, but the famous satirical treatise -of the _Quinze Joyes du Mariage_, and the still more famous farce of -_Pathelin_. Some of the _Nouvelles_, moreover, have been putatively -fathered on Louis XI. himself, in which case the royal house of France -would boast of two distinguished taletellers instead of one. However -this may be, they all display the somewhat hard and grim but keen and -practical humour which seems to have distinguished that prince, which -was a characteristic of French thought and temper at the time, and which -perhaps arose with the misfortunes and hardships of the Hundred Years’ -War. The stories are decidedly amusing, with a considerably greater, -though also a much ruder, _vis comica_ than that of the _Heptameron_; -and they are told in a style unadorned indeed, and somewhat dry, lacking -the simplicity of the older French, and not yet attaining to the -graces of the newer, but forcible, distinct, and sculpturesque, if not -picturesque. A great license of subject and language, and an enjoyment -of practical jokes of the roughest, not to say the most cruel character, -prevail throughout, and there is hardly a touch of anything like -romance; the tales alternating between jests as broad as those of the -Reeve’s and Miller’s tales in Chaucer (themselves exactly corresponding -to verse _fabliaux_, of which the _Cent Nouvelles_ are exact prose -counterparts, and perhaps prose versions), and examples of what has been -called “the humour of the stick,” which sometimes trenches hard upon -the humour of the gallows and the torture-chamber. These characteristics -have made the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_ no great favourites of late, -but their unpopularity is somewhat undeserved. For all their coarseness, -there is much genuine comedy in them, and if the prettiness of romantic -and literary dressing-up is absent from them, so likewise is the -insincerity thereof. They make one of the most considerable prose -books of what may be called middle French literature, and they had much -influence on the books that followed, especially on this of Margaret’s. -Indeed, one of the few examples to be found between the two, the _Grand -Paragon de Nouvelles Nouvelles_ of Nicolas de Troyes (1535), obviously -takes them for model. But Nicolas was a dull dog, and neither profited -by his model nor gave any one else opportunity to profit by himself. - -Rabelais, the first book of whose _Pantagruel_ anticipated the _Paragon_ -by three years, while the _Gargantua_ coincided with it, was a great -authority at the Court of Margaret’s brother Francis, dedicated one -of the books (the third) of _Pantagruel_ to her, before her death, in -high-flown language, as _esprit abstrait, ravy et ecstatic_, and must -certainly have been familiar reading of hers, and of all the ladies and -gentlemen, literary and fashionable, of her Court. But there is little -resemblance to be found in his style and hers. The short stories which -Master Francis scatters about his longer work are, indeed, models of -narration, but his whole tone of thought and manner of treatment are -altogether alien from those of the “ravished spirit” whom he praises. His -deliberate coarseness is not more different from her deliberate delicacy -than his intensely practical spirit from her high-flown romanticism -(which makes one think of, and may have suggested, the Court of La -Quinte), and her mixture of devout and amatory quodlibetation from his -cynical criticism and all-dissolving irony. But there was a contemporary -of Rabelais who forms a kind of link between him and Margaret, whose -work in part is very like the _Heptameron_, and who has been thought to -have had more than a hand in it. This was Bonaventure Despériers, a man -whose history is as obscure as his works are interesting. Born in or -about the year 1500, he committed suicide in 1544, either during a fit -of insanity, or, as has been thought more likely, in order to escape -the danger of the persecution which, in the last years of the reign of -Francis, threatened the unorthodox, and which Margaret, who had -more than once warded it off from them, was then powerless to avert. -Despériers, to speak truth, was in far more danger of the stake than -most of his friends. The infidelity of Rabelais is a matter of inference -only, and some critics (among whom the present writer ranks himself) see -in his daring ridicule of existing abuses nothing inconsistent with a -perfectly sound, if liberally conditioned, orthodoxy. Despériers, like -Rabelais, was a Lucianist, but his modernising of Lucian (the remarkable -book called _Cymbalum Mundï_), though pretending to deal with ancient -mythology, has an almost unmistakable reference to revealed religion. -It is not, however, by this work or by this side of his character at all -that Despériers is brought into connection with the work of Margaret, -who, if learned and liberal, and sometimes tending to the new ideas in -religion, was always devout and always orthodox in fundamentals. Besides -the _Cymbalum Mundi_, he has left a curious book, not published, like -the _Heptameron_ itself, till long after his own death, and entitled -_Nouvelles Récréations et Joyeux Devis_. The tales of which it consists -are for the most part very short, some being rather sketches or outlines -of tales than actually worked-out stories, so that, although there -are no less than a hundred and twenty-nine of them, the whole book is -probably not half the bulk of the _Heptameron_ itself. But they are -extremely well written, and the specially interesting thing about them -is, that in them there appears, and appears for the first time (unless -we take the _Heptameron_ itself as earlier, which is contrary to all -probability), the singular and, at any rate to some persons, very -attractive mixture of sentiment and satire, of learning and a love of -refined society, of joint devotion to heavenly and earthly love, of -voluptuous enjoyment of the present, blended and shadowed with a -sense of the night that cometh, which delights us in the prose of the -_Heptameron_, and in the verse not only of all the Pléiade poets in -France, but of Spenser, Donne, and some of their followers in England. -The scale of the stories, which are sometimes mere anecdotes, is so -small, the room for miscellaneous discourse in them is so scanty, and -the absence of any connecting links, such as those of Margaret’s own -plan, checks the expression of personal feeling so much, that it is -only occasionally that this cast of thought can be perceived. But it -is there, and its presence is an important element in determining the -question of the exact authorship of the _Heptameron_ itself. - -It can hardly be said that, except translations from the Italian (of -which the close intercourse between France and Italy in the days of the -later Valois produced many), Margaret had many other examples before -her. For such a book as the _Propos Rustiques_ of Noël du Fail, -though published before her death, is not likely to have exercised any -influence over her; and most other books of the kind are later than -her own. One such (for, despite its _bizarre_ title and its distinct -intention of attacking the Roman Church, Henry Estienne’s _Apologie -pour Hérodote_ is really a collection of stories) deserves mention, not -because of its influence upon the Queen of Navarre, but because of the -Queen of Navarre’s influence upon it. Estienne is constantly quoting the -_Heptameron_, and though to a certain extent the inveteracy with -which the friars are attacked here must have given the book a special -attraction for him, two things may be gathered from his quotations and -attributions. The first is that the book was a very popular one; the -second, that there was no doubt among well-informed persons, of whom and -in whose company Estienne most certainly was, that the _Heptameron_ was -in more than name the work of its supposed author. - -From what went before it Margaret could, and could not, borrow certain -well-defined things. Models both Italian and French gave her the scheme -of including a large number of short and curtly, but not skimpingly, -told stories in one general framework, and of subdividing them into -groups dealing more or less with the same subject or class of subject. -She had also in her predecessors the example of drawing largely on that -perennial and somewhat facile source of laughter--the putting together -of incidents and phrases which even by those who laugh at them are -regarded as indecorous. But of this expedient she availed herself rather -less than any of her forerunners. She had further the example of a -generally satirical intent; but here, too, she was not content merely to -follow, and her satire is, for the most part, limited to the corruptions -and abuses of the monastic orders. It can hardly be said that any of the -other stock subjects, lawyers, doctors, citizens, even husbands (for she -is less satirical on marriage than encomiastic of love), are dealt with -much by her. She found also in some, but chiefly in older books of the -Chartier and still earlier traditions, and rather in Italian than in -French, a certain strain of romance proper and of adventure; but of -this also she availed herself but rarely. What she did not find in -any example (unless, and then but partially, in the example of her own -servant, Bonaventure Des-périers) was first the interweaving of a great -deal not merely of formal religious exercise, but of positive religious -devotion in her work; and secondly, the infusing into it of the peculiar -Renaissance contrast, so often to be noticed, of love and death, passion -and piety, voluptuous enjoyment and sombre anticipation. - -But it is now time to say a little more about the personality and work -of this lady, whose name all this time we have been using freely, and -who was indeed a very notable person quite independently of her literary -work. Nor was she in literature by any means an unnotable one, quite -independently of the collection of unfinished stories, which, after -receiving at its first posthumous publication the not particularly -appropriate title of _Les Amants Fortunés_, was more fortunately -re-named, albeit by something of a bull (for there is the beginning -of an eighth day as well as the full complement of the seven), the -_Heptameron_. - -Few ladies have been known in history by more and more confusing titles -than the author of the _Heptameron_, the confusion arising partly from -the fact that she had a niece and a great-niece of the same charming -Christian name as herself. The second Margaret de Valois (the most -appropriate name of all three, as it was theirs by family right) was the -daughter of Francis I., the patroness of Ronsard, and, somewhat late -in life, the wife of the Duke of Savoy--a marriage which, as the bride -carried with her a dowry of territory, was not popular, and brought some -coarse jests on her. Not much is said of her personal appearance after -her infancy; but she inherited her aunt’s literary tastes, if not her -literary powers, and gave Ronsard powerful support in his early days. -The third was the daughter of Henry II., the “Grosse Margot” of her -brother, Henry III., the “Reine Margot” of Dumas’ novel, the idol of -Brantôme, the first wife of Henry IV., the beloved of Guise, La Mole, -and a long succession of gallants, the rival of her sister-in-law -Mary Stuart, not in misfortunes, but as the most beautiful, gracious, -learned, accomplished, and amiable of the ladies of her time. This -Margaret would have been an almost perfect heroine of romance (for she -had every good quality except chastity), if she had not unluckily lived -rather too long. - -Her great-aunt, our present subject, was not the equal of her -great-niece in beauty, her portraits being rendered uncomely by a -portentously long nose, longer even than Mrs. Siddons’s, and by a very -curious expression of the eyes, going near to slyness. But the face is -one which can be imagined as much more beautiful than it seems in the -not very attractive portraiture of the time, and her actual attractions -are attested by her contemporaries with something more than the -homage-to-order which literary men have never failed to pay to ladies -who are patronesses of letters. Besides Margaret of Valois, she is -known as Margaret of Angoulême, from her place of birth and her father’s -title; Margaret of Alençon, from the fief of her first husband; Margaret -of Navarre, of which country, like her grand-niece, she was queen, by -her second marriage with Henry d’Albret; and even Margaret of Orleans, -as belonging to the Orleans branch of the royal house. She was not, -like her nieces, Margaret of France, as her father never reigned, and -Brantôme properly denies her the title, but others sometimes give it. -When it is necessary to call her anything besides the simple “Margaret,” - Angoulême is at once the most appropriate and the most distinctive -designation. She was born on the 11th or 12th of April 1492, her father -being Charles, Count of Angoulême, and her mother Louise of Savoy. She -was their eldest child, and two years older than her brother, the future -King Francis. According to, and even in excess of, the custom of the -age, she received a very learned education, acquiring not merely the -three tongues, French, Italian, and Spanish, which were all in common -use at the French Court during her time, but Latin, and even a little -Greek and a little Hebrew. She lived in the provinces both before and -after her marriage, in 1509, to her relation, Charles, Duke of Alençon, -who was older than herself by three years, and though a fair soldier -and an inoffensive person, was apparently of little talents and not -particularly amiable. The accession of her brother to the throne -opened a much more brilliant career to her. She and her mother jointly -exercised great influence over Francis; and the Duchess of Alençon, to -whom her brother shortly afterwards gave Berry, was for many years one -of the most influential persons in the kingdom, using her influence -almost invariably for good. Her husband died soon after Pavia, and -in the same year (September 1525) she undertook a journey to Spain on -behalf of her captive brother. This journey, with some expressions in -her letters and in Brantôme, has been wrested by some critics in order -to prove that her affection for Francis was warmer than it ought to have -been--an imputation wanton in both senses of the word. - -She was sought in marriage by or offered in marriage to divers -distinguished persons during her widowhood, and this was also the time -of her principal diplomatic exercise, an office for which--odd as it now -seems for a woman--she had, like her mother, like her niece Catherine of -Medicis, like her namesake Margaret of Parma, and like other ladies of -the age, a very considerable aptitude and reputation. When she at last -married, the match was not a brilliant one, though it proved, contrary -to immediate probability, to be the source of the last and the most -glorious branch of the royal dynasty of France. The bridegroom bore -indeed the title of King of Navarre and possessed Beam, but his kingdom -had long been in Spanish hands, and but for his wife’s dowry of Alençon -and appanage of Berry (to which Francis had added Armagnac and a large -pension) he would have been but a lackland. Furthermore, he was eleven -years younger than herself, and it is at least insinuated that the -affection, if there was any, was chiefly on her side. At any rate, -this earlier Henry of Navarre seems to have had not a few of the -characteristics of his grandson, together with a violence and brutality -which, to do the _Vert Galant_ justice, formed no part of his character. -The only son of the marriage died young, and a girl, Jane d’Albret, -mother of the great Bourbon race of the next two centuries, was taken -away from her parents by “reasons of state” for a time. The domestic life -of Margaret, however, concerns us but little, except in one way. Her -husband disliked administration, and she was the principal ruler in -their rather extensive estates or dominions. Moreover, she was able at -her quasi-Court to extend the literary coteries which she had already -begun to form at Paris. The patronage to men of letters for which her -brother is famous was certainly more due to her than to himself; and to -her also was due the partial toleration of religious liberty which for a -time distinguished his reign. It was not till her influence was weakened -that intolerance prevailed, and she was able even then for a time to -save Marot and other distinguished persons from persecution. It is -rather a moot-point how far she inclined to the Reformed doctrines, -properly so called. Her letters, her serious and poetical work, and -even the _Heptameron_ itself, show a fervently pietistic spirit, -and occasionally seem to testify to a distinct inclination towards -Protestantism, which is also positively attested by Brantôme and others; -but this Protestantism must have been, so far as it was consistent and -definite at all, the Protestantism of Erasmus rather than of Luther, of -Rabelais rather than of Calvin. She had a very strong objection to -the coarseness, the vices, the idleness, the brutish ignorance of the -cloister; she had aspirations after a more spiritual form of religion -than the ordinary Catholicism of her day provided, and as a strong -politician she may have had something of that Gallicanism which has -always been well marked in some of the best Frenchmen, and which at -one time nearly prevailed with her great-great-grandson, Louis XIV. -But there is no doubt that, as her brother said to the fanatical -Montmorency, she would always have been and always was of his religion, -the religion of the State. The side of the Reformation which must -have most appealed to her was neither its austere morals, nor its bare -ritual, nor its doctrines, properly so called, but its spiritual pietism -and its connection with profane learning and letters; for of literature -Margaret was an ardent devotee and a constant practitioner. - -Her best days were done by the time of her second marriage. After the -King’s return from Spain persecution broke out, and Margaret’s influence -became more and more weak to stop it. As early as 1533 her own _Miroir -de l’Ame Pécheresse_, then in a second edition, provoked the fanaticism -of the Sorbonne, and the King had to interfere in person to protect -his sister’s work and herself from gross insult. The Medici marriage -increased the persecuting tendency, and for a time there was even an -attempt to suppress printing, and with it all that new literature which -was the Queen’s delight. She was herself in some danger, but Francis had -not sunk so low as to permit any actual attack to be made on her. Yet -all the last years of her life were unhappy, though she continued to -keep Court at Nérac in Pau, to accompany her brother in his progresses, -and, as we know from documents, to play Lady Bountiful over a wide area -of France. Her husband appears to have been rather at variance with -her; and her daughter, who married first, and in name only, the Duke -of Cleves in 1540, and later (1548) Anthony de Bourbon, was also not -on cordial terms with her mother. By the date of this second marriage -Francis was dead, and though he had for many years been anything but -wholly kind, Margaret’s good days were now in truth done. Her nephew -Henry left her in possession of her revenues, but does not seem to have -been very affectionately disposed towards her; and even had she -been inclined to attempt any recovery of influence, his wife and his -mistress, Catherine de Medici and Diana of Poitiers, two women as -different from Margaret as they were from one another, would certainly -have prevented her from obtaining it. As a matter of fact, however, she -had long been in ill-health, and her brother’s death seems to have dealt -her the final stroke. She survived it two years, even as she had been -born two years before him, and died on the 21 st December 1549, at the -Castle of Odos, near Tarbes, having lived in almost complete retirement -for a considerable time. Her husband is said to have regretted her dead -more than he loved her living, and her literary admirers, such of them -as death and exile had spared, were not ungrateful. _Tombeaux_, or -collections of funeral verses, were not lacking, the first being in -Latin, and, oddly enough, nominally by three English sisters, Anne, -Margaret, and Jane Seymour, nieces of Henry VIII.’s queen and Edward -VI.’s mother, with learned persons like Dorât, Sainte-Marthe, and Baïf. -This was re-issued in French and in a fuller form later. - -Some reference has been made to an atrocious slur cast without a shred -of evidence on her moral character. There is as little foundation for -more general though milder charges of laxity. It is admitted that she -had little love for her first husband, and it seems to be probable that -her second had not much love for her. She was certainly addressed in -gallant strains by men of letters, the most audacious being Clement -Marot; but the almost universal reference of the well-known and -delightful lines beginning-- - -“Un doux nenny avec un doux sourire,” - -to her method of dealing not merely with this lover but with others, -argues a general confidence in her being a virtuous coquette, if -somewhat coquettishly virtuous. It may be added that the whole tone of -the _Heptameron_ points to a very similar conclusion. - -Her literary work was very considerable, and it falls under three -divisions: letters, the book before us, and the very curious and -interesting collection of poems known by the charming if fantastic title -of _Les Marguerites de la Marguerite des Princesses_, a play on the -meanings, daisy, pearl, and Margaret, which had been popular in the -artificial school of French poetry since the end of the thirteenth -century in a vast number of forms. - -The letters are naturally of the very first importance for determining -the character of Margaret’s life as a woman of business, a diplomatist, -and so forth. They show her to us in all these capacities, and also in -that of an enlightened and always ready patroness of letters and of men -of letters. Further, they are of value, though their value is somewhat -affected by a reservation to be made immediately, as to her mental and -moral characteristics. But they are not of literary interest at all -equal to that of either of the other divisions. They are, if not spoilt, -still not improved, by the fact that the art of easy letter-writing, -in which Frenchwomen of the next century were to show themselves such -proficients, had not yet been developed, and that most of them are -couched in a heavy, laborious, semiofficial style, which smells, as far -as mere style goes, of the cumbrous refinements of the _rhétoriqueurs_, -in whose flourishing time Margaret herself grew up, and which conceals -the writer’s sentiments under elaborate forms of ceremonial courtesy. -Something at least of the groundless scandal before referred to is -derived in all probability, if not in all certainty, from the lavish -use of hyperbole in addressing her brother; and generally speaking, -the rebuke of the Queen to Polonius, “More matter with less art,” is -applicable to the whole correspondence. - -Something of the same evil influence is shown in the Marguerites. It -must be remembered that the writer died before the Pléiade movement had -been fully started, and that she was older by five years than Marot, -the only one of her own contemporaries and her own literary circle who -attained to a poetic style easier, freer, and more genuine than the -cumbrous rhetoric, partly derived from the allegorising style of the -_Roman de la Rose_ and its followers, partly influenced by corrupt -following of the re-discovered and scarcely yet understood classics, -partly alloyed with Flemish and German and Spanish stiffness, of which -Chastellain, Crétin, and the rest have been the frequently quoted and -the rarely read exponents to students of French literature. The contents -of the _Marguerites_, to take the order of the beautiful edition of -M. Félix Frank, are as follows: Volume I. contains first a long and -singular religious poem entitled _Le Miroir de l’Ame Pécheresse_, in -rhymed decasyllables, in which pretty literal paraphrases of a large -number of passages of Scripture are strung together with a certain -amount of pious comment and reflection. This is followed (after a -shorter piece on the contest in the human soul between the laws of the -spirit and of the flesh) by another poem of about the same length as the -_Miroir_, and of no very different character, entitled _Oraison de L’Ame -Fidèle à son Seigneur Dieu_, and a shorter _Oraison à Notre Seigneur -Jésus Christ_ completes the volume. The second volume yields four -so-called “comedies,” but really mysteries on the old mediæval model, -only distinguishable from their forerunners by slightly more modern -language and a more scriptural tone. The subjects are the Nativity, the -Adoration of the Three Kings, the Massacre of the Innocents, and the -Flight into Egypt. The third volume contains a third poem in the -style of the _Miroir_, but much superior, _Le Triomphe de l’Agneau_, a -considerable body of spiritual songs, a miscellaneous poem or two, -and some epistles, chiefly addressed to Francis. These last begin the -smaller and secular division of the _Marguerites_, which is completed -in the fourth volume by _Les Quatre Dames et les Quatre Gentilhommes_, -composed of long monologues after the fashion of the Froissart-Chartier -school, by a “_comédie profane_,” a farce entitled _Trop, Prou [much], -Peu, Moins_; a long love poem, again in the Chartier style, entitled _La -Coche_, and some minor pieces. - -Opinion as to these poems has varied somewhat, but their merit has never -been put very high, nor, to tell the truth, could it be put high by any -one who speaks critically. In the first place, they are written for the -most part on very bad models, both in general plan and in particular -style and expression. The plan is, as has been said, taken from the -long-winded allegorical erotic poetry of the very late thirteenth, the -fourteenth, and the fifteenth centuries--poetry which is now among the -most difficult to read in any literature. The groundwork or canvas being -transferred from love to religion, it gains a little in freshness and -directness of purpose, but hardly in general readableness. Thus, for -instance, two whole pages of the _Miroir_, or some forty or fifty lines, -are taken up with endless playings on the words _mort_ and _vie_ and -their derivatives, such as _mortifiez, and mort fiez, mort vivifiée and -vie mourante_. The sacred comedies or mysteries have the tediousness -and lack of action of the older pieces of the same kind without their -_naïveté_; and pretty much the same may be said of the profane comedy -(which is a kind of morality), and of the farce. Of _La Coche_, what has -been said of the long sacred poems may be said, except that here we -go back to the actual subject of the models, not on the whole with -advantage: while in the minor pieces the same word plays and frigid -conceits are observable. - -But if this somewhat severe judgment must be passed on the poems -as wholes, and from a certain point of view, it may be considerably -softened when they are considered more in detail. In not a few passages -of the religious poems Margaret has reached (and as she had no examples -before her except Marot’s psalms, which were themselves later than at -least some of her work, may be said to have anticipated) that grave and -solemn harmony of the French Huguenots of the sixteenth century, which -in Du Bartas, in Agrippa d’Aubigné, and in passages of the tragedian -Montchrestien, strikes notes hardly touched elsewhere in French -literature. The _Triomphe de l’Agneau_ displays her at her best in this -respect, and not unfrequently comes not too far off from the apocalyptic -resonance of d’Aubigné himself. Again, the _Bergerie_ included in the -Nativity comedy or mystery, though something of a Dresden _Bergerie_ (to -use a later image), is graceful and elegant enough in all conscience. -But it is on the minor poems, especially the Epistles and the _Chansons -Spirituelles_, that the defenders of Margaret’s claim to be a poet rest -most strongly. In the former her love, not merely for her brother, but -for her husband, appears unmistakably, and suggests graceful thoughts. -In the latter the force and fire which occasionally break through the -stiff wrappings of the longer poems appear with less difficulty and in -fuller measure. - -It is, however, undoubtedly curious, and not to be explained merely by -the difference of subject, that the styles of the letters and of the -poems, agreeing well enough between themselves, differ most remarkably -from that of the _Heptameron_. The two former are decidedly open to -the charges of pedantry, artificiality, heaviness. There is a great -surplusage of words and a seeming inability to get to the point. The -_Heptameron_ if not equal in narrative vigour and lightness to Boccaccio -before and La Fontaine afterwards, is not in the least exposed to -the charge of clumsiness of any kind, employs a simple, natural, and -sufficiently picturesque vocabulary, avoids all verbiage and roundabout -writing, and both in the narratives and in the connecting conversation -displays a very considerable advance upon nearly all the writers of the -time, except Rabelais, Marot, and Despériers, in easy command of the -vernacular. It is, therefore, not wonderful that there has, at different -times (rather less of late years, but that is probably an accident), -been a disposition if not to take away from Margaret all the credit of -the book, at any rate to give a share of it to others. In so far as this -share is attempted to be bestowed on ladies and gentlemen of her Court -or family there is very little evidence for it; but in so far as the pen -may be thought to have been sometimes held for her by the distinguished -men of letters just referred to (there is no reason why Master Francis -himself should not have sometimes guided it), and by others only less -distinguished, there is considerable internal reason to favour the idea. -At all times and in all places--in France perhaps more than anywhere -else--kings and queens, lords and ladies, have found no difficulty (we -need not use the harsh Voltairian-Carlylian phrase, and say in getting -their literary work “buckwashed,” but) in getting it pointed and -seasoned, trimmed and ornamented by professional men of letters. The -form of the _Heptameron_ lends itself more than any other to such -assistance; and while I should imagine that the setting, with its strong -colour, both of religiosity and amorousness, is almost wholly Margaret’s -work, I should also think it so likely as to be nearly certain that in -some at least of the tales the hands of the authors of the _Cymbalum -Mundi_ and the _Adolescence Clémentine_, of Le Maçon and Brodeau, may -have worked at the devising, very likely re-shaped and adjusted by the -Queen herself, of the actual stories as we have them now. - -The book, as we have it, consists of seven complete days of ten novels -each, and of an eighth containing two novels only. The fictitious scheme -of the setting is somewhat less lugubrious than that of the _Decameron_, -but still not without an element of tragedy. On the first of September, -“when the hot springs of the Pyrenees begin to enter upon their virtue,” - a company of persons of quality assembled at Cauterets, we are told, and -abode there three weeks with much profit. But when they tried to return, -rain set in with such severity that they thought the Deluge had come -again, and they found their roads, especially that to the French side, -almost entirely barred by the Gave de Béarn and other rivers. So they -scattered in different directions, most of them taking the Spanish -side, either along the mountains and across to Roussillon or straight to -Barcelona, and thence home by sea. But a certain widow, named Oisille, -made her way with much loss of men and horses to the Abbey of Notre Dame -de Serrance. Here she was joined by divers gentlemen and ladies, who -had had even worse experiences of travel than herself, with bears and -brigands, and other evil things, so that one of them, Longarine, had -lost her husband, murdered in an affray in one of the cut-throat inns -always dear to romance. Besides this disconsolate person and Oisille, -the company consisted of a married pair, Hircan and Parlamente; two -young cavaliers, Dagoucin and Saffredent; two young ladies, Nomerfide -and Ennasuite; Simontault, a cavalier-servant of Parlamente; and -Geburon, a knight older and discreeter than the rest of the company -except Oisille.(1) - - 1 These names have been accommodated to M. Le Roux de - Lincy’s orthography, from MS. No. 1512; but for myself I - prefer the spellings, especially “Emarsuitte,” more usual in - the printed editions.--G. S. - -These form the party, and it is to be noted that idle and contradictory -as all the attempts made to identify them have been (for instance, the -most confident interpreters hesitate between Oisille and Parlamente, an -aged widow and a youthful wife, for Margaret herself), it is not to be -denied that the various parts are kept up with much decision and spirit. -Of the men, indeed, Hircan is the only one who has a very decided -character, and is represented as fond of his wife, Parlamente, but -a decided libertine and of a somewhat rough and ruthless general -character--points which have made the interpreters sure that he must be -Henry d’Albret. The others, except that Geburon is, as had been said, -older than his companions, and that Simontault sighs vainly after -Parlamente, are merely walking gentlemen of the time, accomplished -enough, but not individual. The women are much more distinct and show a -woman’s hand. Oisille is, as our own seventeenth-century ancestors would -have said, ancient and sober, very devout, regarded with great respect -by the rest of the company, and accepted as a kind of mistress both of -the revels and of more serious matters, but still a woman of the -world, and content to make only an occasional and mild protest against -tolerably free stories and sentiments. Parlamente, considerably younger, -and though virtuous, not by any means ignorant of or wholly averse to -the devotion of Simontault, indulging occasionally in a kind of mild -conjugal sparring with her husband, Hircan, but apparently devoted to -him, full of religion and romance and refinement at once, is a very -charming character, resembling Madame de Sévigné as she may have been -in her unknown or hardly known youth, when husband and lovers alike were -attracted by the flame of her beauty and charm, only to complain that -it froze and did not burn. Longarine is discreetly unhappy for her -dead husband, but appears decidedly consolable; Ennasuite is a haughty -damsel, disdainful of poor folk, and Nomerfide is a pure madcap, -a Catherine Seyton of the generation before Catherine herself, the -feminine Dioneo of the party, and, if a little too free-spoken for -prudish modern taste, a very delightful girl. - -Now when this good company had assembled at Serrance and told each other -their misadventures, the waters on inquiry seemed to be out more widely -and more dangerously than before, so that it was impossible to think of -going farther for the time. They deliberated accordingly how they should -employ themselves, and, after allowing, on the proposal of Oisille, an -ample space for sacred exercises, they resolved that every day, after -dinner and an interval, they should assemble in a meadow on the bank of -the Gave at midday and tell stories. The device is carried out with -such success that the monks steal behind the hedges to hear them, and an -occasional postponement of vespers takes place. Simontault begins, and -the system of tale-telling goes round on the usual plan of each speaker -naming him or her who shall follow. It should be observed that no -general subject is, as in the _Decameron_, prescribed to the speakers -of each day, though, as a matter of course, one subject often suggests -another of not dissimilar kind. Nor is there the Decameronic arrangement -of the “king.” Between the stories, and also between the days, there is -often a good deal of conversation, in which the divers characters, as -given above, are carried out with a minuteness very different from the -chief Italian original. - -From what has been said already, it will be readily perceived that the -novels, or rather their subjects, are not very easy to class in any -rationalised order. The great majority, if they do not answer exactly to -the old title of _Les Histoires des Amants Fortunés_, are devoted to -the eternal subject of the tricks played by wives to the disadvantage -of husbands, by husbands to the disadvantage of wives, and sometimes by -lovers to the disadvantage of both. “Subtilité” is a frequent word in -the titles, and it corresponds to a real thing. Another large division, -trenching somewhat upon the first, is composed of stories to the -discredit of the monks (something, though less, is said against the -secular clergy), and especially of the Cordeliers or Franciscans, an -Order who, for their coarse immorality and their brutal antipathy to -learning, were the special black (or rather grey) beasts of the literary -reformers of the time. In a considerable number there are references -to actual personages of the time--references which stand on a very -different footing of identification from the puerile guessings at the -personality of the interlocutors so often referred to. Sometimes these -references are avowed: “Un des muletiers de la Reine de Navarre,” “Le -Roi François montre sa générosité,” “Un Président de Grenoble,” “Une -femme d’Alençon,” and so forth. At other times the reference is somewhat -more covert, but hardly to be doubted, as in the remarkable story of a -“great Prince” (obviously Francis himself) who used on his journeyings -to and from an assignation of a very illegitimate character, to turn -into a church and piously pursue his devotions. There are a few curious -stories in which amatory matters play only a subordinate part or none -at all, though it must be confessed that this last is a rare thing. -Some are mere anecdote plays on words (sometimes pretty free, and then -generally told by Nomer-fide), or quasi-historical, such as that -already noticed of the generosity of Francis to a traitor, or deal with -remarkable trials and crimes, or merely miscellaneous matters, the best -of the last class being the capital “Bonne invention pour chasser le -lutin.” - -In so large a number of stories with so great a variety of subjects, it -naturally cannot but be the case that there is a considerable diversity -of tone. But that peculiarity at which we have glanced more than once, -the combination of voluptuous passion with passionate regret and a -mystical devotion, is seldom absent for long together. The general -note, indeed, of the _Heptameron_ is given by more than one passage -in Brantôme--at greatest length by one which Sainte-Beuve has rightly -quoted, at the same time and also rightly rebuking the sceptical Abbé’s -determination to see in it little more than a piece of _précieuse_ -mannerliness (though, indeed, the _Précieuses_ were not yet). Yet even -Sainte-Beuve has scarcely pointed out quite strongly enough how entirely -this is the keynote of all Margaret’s work, and especially of the -_Heptameron_. The story therefore may be worth telling again, though -it may be found in the “Cinquième Discours” of the _Vies des Dames -Galantes_. - -Brantôme’s brother, not yet a captain in the army, but a student -travelling in Italy, had in sojourning at Ferrara, when Renée of France -was Duchess, fallen in love with a certain Mademoiselle de la Roche. For -love of him she had returned to France, and, visiting his own country -of Gascony, had attached herself to the Court of Margaret, where she -had died. And it happened that Bourdeilles, six months afterwards, and -having forgotten all about his dead love, came to Pau and went to pay -his respects to the Queen. He met her coming back from vespers, and she -greeted him graciously, and they talked of this matter and of that. But, -as they walked together hither and thither, the Queen drew him, without -cause shown, into the church she had just left, where Mademoiselle de -la Roche was buried. “Cousin,” said she, “do you feel nothing stirring -beneath you and under your feet?” But he said, “Nothing, Madame.” - “Think, cousin,” then said she once again. But he said, “Madame, I have -thought well, but I feel nought; for under me there is but a stone, hard -and firmly set.” “Now, do I tell you,” said the Queen, leaving him -no longer at study, “that you are above the tomb and the body of -Mademoiselle de la Roche, who is buried beneath you, and whom you loved -so much in her lifetime. And since our souls have sense after our death, -it cannot be but that this faithful one, dead so lately, felt your -presence as soon as you came near her; and if you have not perceived it, -because of the thickness of the tomb, doubt not that none the less she -felt it. And forasmuch as it is a pious work to make memory of the dead, -and notably of those whom we loved, I pray you give her a _pater_ and an -_ave_, and likewise a _de profundis_, and pour out holy water. So -shall you make acquist of the name of a right faithful lover and a good -Christian.” And she left him that he might do this. - -Brantôme (though he had an admiration for Margaret, whose lady of -honour his grandmother had been, and who, according to the Bourdeilles -tradition, composed her novels in travelling) thought this a pretty -fashion of converse. “Voilà,” he says, “l’opinion de cette bonne -princesse; laquelle la tenait plus par gentillesse et par forme de devis -que par créance à mon avis.” Sainte-Beuve, on the contrary, and with -better reason, sees in it faith, graciousness, feminine delicacy, and -piety at once. No doubt; but there is something more than this, and that -something more is what we are in search of, and what we shall find, now -in one way, now in another, throughout the book: something whereof the -sentiment of Donne’s famous thoughts on the old lover’s ghost, on the -blanched bone with its circlet of golden tresses, is the best known -instance in English. The madcap Nomerfide indeed lays it down, that -“the meditation of death cools the heart not a little.” But her more -experienced companions know better. The worse side of this Renaissance -peculiarity is told in the last tale, a rather ghastly story of monkish -corruption; its lighter side appears in the story, already referred -to, of the “Grand Prince” and his pious devotions on the way to not -particularly pious occupation. But touches of the more poetical and -romantic effects of it are all over the book. It is to be found in the -story of the gentleman who forsook the world because of his beloved’s -cruelty, whereat she repenting did likewise (“he had much better have -thrown away his cowl and married her,” quoth the practical Nomerfide); -in that of the wife who, to obtain freedom of living with her paramour, -actually allowed herself to be buried; in that (very characteristic of -the time, especially for the touch of farce in it) of the unlucky -person to whom phlebotomy and love together were fatal; and in not a -few others, while it emerges in casual phrases of the intermediate -conversations and of the stories themselves, even when it is not to be -detected in the general character of the subjects. - -And thus we can pretty well decide what is the most interesting and -important part of the whole subject. The question, What is the -special virtue of the _Heptameron_? I have myself little hesitation -in answering. There is no book, in prose and of so early a date, which -shows to me the characteristic of the time as it influenced the two -great literary nations of Europe so distinctly as this book of Margaret -of Angoulême. Take it as a book of Court gossip, and it is rather less -interesting than most books of Court gossip, which is saying much. Take -it as the performance of a single person, and you are confronted with -the difficulty that it is quite unlike that other person’s more certain -works, and that it is in all probability a joint affair. Take its -separate stories, and, with rare exceptions, they are not of the first -order of interest, or even of the second. But separate the individual -purport of these stories from the general colour or tone of them; -take this general colour or tone in connection with the tenor of the -intermediate conversations, which form so striking a characteristic -of the book, and something quite different appears. It is that same -peculiarity which appears in places and persons and things so different -as Spenser, as the poetry of the Pléiade, as Montaigne, as Raleigh, -as Donne, as the group of singers known as the Caroline poets. It is -a peculiarity which has shown itself in different forms at different -times, but never in such vigour and precision as at this time. It -combines a profound and certainly sincere--almost severe--religiosity -with a very vigorous practice of some things which the religion it -professes does not at all countenance. It has an almost morbidly -pronounced simultaneous sense of the joys and the sorrows of human life, -the enjoyment of the joys being perfectly frank, and the feeling of -the sorrows not in the least sentimental. It unites a great general -refinement of thought, manners, opinion, with an almost astonishing -occasional coarseness of opinion, manners, thought. The prevailing note -in it is a profound melancholy mixed with flashes and intervals of a no -less profound delight. There is in it the sense of death, to a strange -and, at first sight, almost unintelligible extent. Only when one -remembers the long night of the religious wars which was just about to -fall on France, just as after Spenser, Puritan as he was, after Carew -and Herrick still more, a night of a similar character was about to fall -on England, does the real reason of this singular idiosyncrasy appear. -The company of the _Heptameron_ are the latest representatives, at first -hand, and with no deliberate purpose of presentment, of the mediaeval -conception of gentlemen and ladies who fleeted the time goldenly. They -are not themselves any longer mediaeval; they have been taught modern -ways; they have a kind of uneasy sense (even though one and another of -themselves may now and then flout the idea) of the importance of other -classes, even of some duty on their own part towards other classes. -Their piety is a very little deliberate, their voluptuous indulgence has -a grain of conscience in it and behind it, which distinguishes it not -less from the frank indulgence of a Greek or a Roman than from the still -franker naïveté of purely mediaeval art, from the childlike, almost -paradisiac, innocence of the Belli-cents and Nicolettes and of the -daughter of the great Soldan Hugh in that wonderful serio-comic -_chanson_ of the _Voyage à Constantinople_. The mark of modernity is on -them, and yet they are so little conscious of it, and so perfectly free -from even the slightest touch of at least its anti-religious influence. -Nobody, not even Hircan, the Grammont of the sixteenth century; not -even Nomerfide, the Miss Notable of her day and society; not even the -haughty lady Ennasuite, who wonders whether common folk can be supposed -to have like passions with us, feels the abundant religious services and -the periods of meditation unconscionable or tiresome. - -And so we have here three notes constantly sounding together or in -immediate sequence. There is the passion of that exquisite _rondeau_ -of Marot’s, which some will have, perhaps not impossibly, to refer to -Margaret herself-- - - En la baisant m’a dit: “Amy sans blasme, - Ce seul baiser, qui deux bouches embasme, - Les arrhes sont du bien tant espéré,” - Ce mot elle a doulcement proféré, - Pensant du tout apaiser ma grand flamme. - Mais le mien cour adonc plus elle enflamme, - Car son alaine odorant plus que basme - Souffloit le feu qu’Amour m’a préparé, - En la baisant. - - Bref, mon esprit, sans congnoissance d’âme, - Vivoit alors sur la bouche à ma dame, - Dont se mouroit le corps énamouré; - Et si la lèvre eust guères demouré - Contre la mienne, elle m’eust succé l’âme, - En la baisant. - -There is the devout meditation of Oisille, and that familiarity with the -Scriptures which, as Hircan himself says, “I trow we all read and -know.” And then there is the note given by two other curious stories of -Brantôme. One tells how the Queen of Navarre watched earnestly for hours -by the bedside of a dying maid of honour, that she might see whether the -parting of the soul was a visible fact or not. The second tells how -when some talked before her of the joys of heaven, she sighed and said, -“Well, I know that this is true; but we dwell so long dead underground -before we arise thither.” There, in a few words, is the secret of _THE -HEPTAMERON_: the fear of God, the sense of death, the voluptuous longing -and voluptuous regret for the good things of life and love that pass -away. - -George Saintsbury.(1) - -London, October 1892. - - 1 As I have spoken so strongly of the attempts to identify - the personages of the _Heptameron_, it might seem - discourteous not to mention that one of the most - enthusiastic and erudite English students of Margaret, - Madame Darmesteter (Miss Mary Robinson), appears to be - convinced of the possibility and advisableness of - discovering these originals. Everything that this lady - writes is most agreeable to read; but I fear I cannot say - that her arguments have converted me.--G. S. - - - - -_DEDICATIONS AND PREFACE_, - -PREFIXED TO THE FIRST TWO EDITIONS OF THE TALES OF THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE. - -_To the most Illustrious, most Humble, and most Excellent Princess_, - -Madame Margaret de Bourbon, - -Duchess of Nevers, Marchioness of Illes, Countess of Eu, of Dreux, -Rételois, Columbiers, and Beaufort, Lady of Aspremont, of Cham-Regnault, -of Arches, Rencaurt, Monrond, and La Chapelle-d’Angylon, Peter -Boaistuau surnamed Launay, offers most humble salutation and perpetual -obedience.(1) - - 1 This dedicatory preface appeared in the first edition of - Queen Margaret’s Tales, published by Boaistuau in 1558 under - the title of _Histoires des Amans Fortunez_. The Princess - addressed was the daughter of Charles, Duke of Vendôme; she - was wedded in 1538 to Francis of Cleves, Duke of Nevers, and - by this marriage became niece to the Queen of Navarre.--Ed. - -Madam, That great oracle of God, St. John Chrysostom, deplores with -infinite compassion in some part of his works the disaster and calamity -of his century, in which not only was the memory of an infinity of -illustrious persons cut off from among mankind, but, what is more, their -writings, by which the rich conceptions of their souls and the divine -ornaments of their minds were to have been consecrated to posterity, did -not survive them. And certainly with most manifest reason did this good -and holy man address such a complaint to the whole Christian Republic, -touched as he was with just grief for an infinity of thousands of books, -of which some have been lost and buried in eternal forgetfulness by -the negligence of men, others dispersed and destroyed by the cruel -incursions of war, others rotted and spoiled as much by the rigour -of time as by carelessness to collect and preserve them; whereof -the ancient Histories and Annals furnish a sufficient example in the -memorable library of that great King of Egypt, Ptolemy Phila-delphus, -which had been formed with the sweat and blood of so many notable -philosophers, and maintained, ordered, and preserved by the liberality -of that great monarch. And yet in less than a day, by the monstrous and -abominable cruelty of the soldiers of Cæsar, when the latter followed -Pompey to Alexandria, it was burned and reduced to ashes. Zonarius, -the ecclesiastical historian, writes that the same happened at -Constantinople in the time of Zeno, when a superb and magnificent -palace, adorned with all sorts of manuscript books, was burnt, to the -eternal regret and insupportable detriment of all those who made a -profession of letters. And without amusing ourselves too curiously -in recounting the destruction among the ancients, we have in our time -experienced a similar loss--of which the memory is so recent that the -wounds thereof still bleed in all parts of Europe--namely, when the -Turks besieged Buda, the capital of Hungary, where the most celebrated -library of the good King Matthias was pillaged, dispersed, and -destroyed; a library which, without sparing any expense, he had enriched -with all the rarest and most excellent books, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, -and Arabic, that he had been able to collect in all the most famous -provinces of the earth. - -Again, he who would particularise and closely examine things will find -that Theophrastes, as he himself declares, wrote and composed three -hundred volumes, Chrysippus sixty, Empedocles fifty, Servus Sulpicius -two hundred on civil law, Gallienus one hundred and thirty on the art -of medicine, and Origenes six thousand, all of which St. Jerome attests -having read; and yet, of so many admirable and excellent authors, there -now remain to us only some little fragments, so debased and vitiated in -several places, that they seem abortive, and as if they had been torn -from their author’s hands by force. - -On account of which, my Lady, since the occasion has offered, I have -been minded to present all these examples, with the object of exhorting -all those who treasure books and keep them sequestered in their -sanctuaries and cabinets, to henceforth publish them and bring them to -light, not only so that they may not keep back and bury the glory of -their ancestors, but also that they may not deprive their descendants -of the profit and pleasure which they might derive from the labour of -others. - -In regard to myself, I will set forth more amply in the notice which I -will give to the reader the motive that induced me to put my hand to -the work of the present author, who has no need of trumpet and herald -to exalt and magnify her(1) greatness, inasmuch as there is no human -eloquence that could portray her more forcibly than she has portrayed -herself by the celestial strokes of her own brush; I mean by her other -writings, in which she has so well expressed the sincerity of her -doctrines, the vivacity of her faith, and the uprightness of her morals, -that the most learned men who reigned in her time were not ashamed -to call her a prodigy and miracle of nature. And albeit that Heaven, -jealous of our welfare, has snatched her from this mortal habitation, -yet her virtues rendered her so admirable and so engraved her in the -memory of every one, that the injury and lapse of time cannot efface -her from it; for we shall ceaselessly mourn and lament for her, like -Antimachus the Greek poet wept for Lysidichea, his wife, with sad verses -and delicate elegies which describe and reveal, her virtues and merits. - - 1 In the French text Boaistuau invariably refers to the - author as a personage of the masculine sex, with the evident - object of concealing the real authorship of the work. - Feminine pronouns have, however, been substituted in the - translation, as it is Queen Margaret who is referred to. - --Ed. - -Therefore, my Lady, as this work is about to be exposed to the doubtful -judgment of so many thousands of men, may it please you to take it under -your protection and into your safe keeping; for, whereas you are the -natural and legitimate heiress of all the excellencies, ornaments, and -virtues which enriched the author while she adorned by her presence the -surprise of the earth, and which now by some marvellous ray of divinity -live and display themselves in you, it is not possible that you should -be defrauded of the fruit of the labour which justly belongs to you, and -for which the whole universe will be indebted to you now that it comes -forth into the light under the resplendent shelter of your divine and -heroic virtues. - -May it therefore please you, my Lady, to graciously accept of this -little offering, as an eternal proof of my obedience and most humble -devotion to your greatness, pending a more important sacrifice which I -prepare for the future. - - - - -Peter Boaistuau, surnamed Launay, To the Reader.(1) - - 1 This notice follows the dedicatory preface in the edition - of 1558. - -Gentle Reader, I can tell thee verily and with good right assert (even -prove by witnesses worthy of belief) when this work was presented to me -that I might fulfil the office of a sponge and cleanse it of a multitude -of manifest errors that were found in a copy written by hand, I was only -requested to take out or copy eighteen or twenty of the more notable -tales, reserving myself to complete the rest at a more convenient season -and at greater leisure. - -However, as men are fond of novelties, I was solicited with very -pressing requests to pursue my point, to which I consented, rather by -reason of the importunity than of my own will, and my enterprise was -conducted in such fashion, that so as not to show myself in any wise -disobedient, I added some more tales, to which again others have since -been adjoined. - -In regard to myself, I can assure thee that it would have been less -difficult for me to build the whole edifice anew than to mutilate it in -several places, change, innovate, add and suppress in others, but I -was almost perforce compelled to give it a new form, which I have done, -partly for the requirements and the adornment of the stories, partly to -conform to the times and the infelicity of our century, when most human -things are so exulcerated that there is no work, however well digested, -polished, and filed, but it is badly interpreted and slandered by the -malice of fastidious persons. Take, therefore, in good part our hasty -labour, and be not too close a censor of another’s work until thou hast -examined thine own. - - - - -_To the most Illustrious and Virtuous Princess_, Madame Jane de Foix, -Queen of Navarre, - -Claud Gruget, her very humble servant, presents salutation and wishes of -felicity. (1) - -I would not have interfered, Madam, to present you with this book of -the Tales of the late Queen, your mother, if the first edition had not -omitted or concealed her name, and almost entirely changed its form, to -such a point that many did not recognise it; on which account, to -render it worthy of its author, I, as soon as it was divulged, gathered -together from all sides the copies I could collect of it written by -hand, verifying them by my copy, and acting in such wise that I arranged -the book in the real order in which she had drawn it up. Then, with the -permission of the King and your consent, it was sent to the press to be -published such as it should be. - -Concerning it, I am reminded of what Count Balthazar says of Boccaccio -in the Preface to his _Courtier_(2) that what he had done by way of -pastime, namely, his _Decameron_, had brought him more honour than all -his other works in Latin or Tuscan, which he esteemed the most serious. - - 1 This preface was inserted in the edition issued in 1559 - by Claud Gruget, who gave the title of “_Heptameron_” to - Queen Margaret’s tales. - - 2 The _Libro del Cortegiano_, by Count Baldassare - Castiglione, was the nobleman’s _vade-mecum_ of the period. - First published at Venice in 1528, it was translated into - French in 1537 by J. Colin, secretary to Francis I.--Ed. - -Thus, the Queen, that true ornament of our century, from whom you do -not derogate in the love and knowledge of good letters, while -amusing herself with the acts of human life, has left such beauteous -instructions that there is no one who does not find matter of erudition -in them; and, indeed, according to all good judgment, she has surpassed -Boccaccio in the beautiful Discourses which she composes upon each -of her tales. For which she deserves praise, not only over the most -excellent ladies, but also among the most learned men; for of the three -styles of oration described by Cicero, she has chosen the simple one, -similar to that of Terence in Latin, which to every one seems very easy -to imitate, though it is anything but that to him who tries it. - -It is true that such a present will not be new to you, and that you will -only recognise in it the maternal inheritance. However, I feel assured -that you will receive it favourably, at seeing it, in this second -impression, restored to its original state, for according to what I have -heard the first displeased you. Not that he who put his hand to it was -not a learned man, or did not take trouble; indeed it is easy to -believe that he was not minded to disguise it thus, without some reason; -nevertheless his work has proved unpleasing. - -I present it to you then, Madam, not that I pretend to any share in -it, but only as having unmasked it to restore it to you in its natural -state. It is for Your Royal Greatness to favour it since it proceeds -from your illustrious House, whereof it bears the mark upon the front, -which will serve it as a safe-conduct throughout the world and render it -welcome among good company. - -As for myself, recognising the honour that you will do me in receiving -from my hand the work thus restored to its right state, I shall ever -feel obliged to render you most humble duty. - - - - -THE HEPTAMERON. - - -[Illustration: 013a.jpg] - -[Prologue: The Story-tellers in the Meadow near The Gave.] - - - - -PROLOGUE. - - -On the first day of September, when the baths in the Pyrenees -Mountains begin to be possessed of their virtue, there were at those of -Cauterets(1) many persons as well of France as of Spain, some to drink -the water, others to bathe in it, and again others to make trial of the -mud; all these being remedies so marvellous that persons despaired of -by the doctors return thence wholly cured. My purpose is not to speak to -you of the situation or virtue of the said baths, but only to set forth -as much as relates to the matter of which I desire to write. - - 1 There are no fewer than twenty-six sources at Cauterets, - the waters being either of a sulphureous or a saline - character. The mud baths alluded to by Margaret were - formerly taken at the Source de César Vieux, half-way up - Mount Peyraute, and so called owing to a tradition that - Julius Cæsar bathed there. It is at least certain that these - baths were known to the Romans.--Ed. - - Cauterets is frequently mentioned by the old authors, and - Rabelais refers to it in this passage: “Pantagruel’s urine - was so hot that ever since that time it has not cooled, and - you have some of it in France, at divers places, at - Coderetz, Limous, Dast, Ballerue, Bourbonne, and - elsewhere” (Book ii. chap, xxxiii.).--M. - -All the sick persons continued at the baths for more than three weeks, -until by the amendment in their condition they perceived that they might -return home again. But while they were preparing to do so, there fell -such extraordinary rains that it seemed as though God had forgotten the -promise He made to Noah never to destroy the world with water again; for -every cottage and every lodging in Cauterets was so flooded with water -that it was no longer possible to continue there. Those who had come -from the side of Spain returned thither across the mountains as best -they could, and such of them as knew whither the roads led fared best in -making their escape. - -The French lords and ladies thought to return to Tarbes as easily as -they had come, but they found the streamlets so deep as to be scarcely -fordable. When they came to pass over the Bearnese Gave,(1) which at the -time of their former passage had been less than two feet in depth, -they found it so broad and swift that they turned aside to seek for -the bridges. But these being only of wood, had been swept away by the -turbulence of the water. - - 1 The Basques give the name of Gave to those watercourses - which become torrents in certain seasons. The Bearnese Gave, - so named because it passes through the territory of the - ancient city of Beam, takes its source in the Pyrenees, and - flows past Pau to Sorde, where it joins the Adour, which - falls into the sea at Bayonne. It is nowadays generally - known as the Gave of Pau.--L. & M. - -Then certain of the company thought to stem the force of the current by -crossing in a body, but they were quickly carried away, and the others -who had been about to follow lost all inclination to do so. Accordingly -they separated, as much because they were not all of one mind as to find -some other way. Some crossed over the mountains, and passing through -Aragon came to the county of Rousillon, and thence to Narbonne; whilst -others made straight for Barcelona, going thence by sea, some to -Marseilles and others to Aigues-Mortes. - -But a widow lady of long experience, named Oisille, resolved to lay -aside all fear of bad roads and to betake herself to Our Lady of -Serrance.(3) - - 3 The Abbey of Our Lady of Serrance, or more correctly - Sarrances, in the valley of Aspe, was occupied by monks of - the Prémontré Order, who were under the patronage of St. - Mary. An apparition of the Virgin having been reported in - the vicinity, pilgrimages were made to Sarrances on the - feasts of her nativity (Sept. 8) and her assumption (Aug. - 15). In 1385 Gaston de Foix, who greatly enriched the abbey, - built a residence in the neighbourhood, his example being - followed by the Gramonts, the Miollens, and other nobles. - The pilgrimages had become very celebrated in the fifteenth - century, when Louis XI. repaired to Sarrances, accompanied - by Coictier, his physician. In 1569, however, the - Huguenots pillaged and burned down the abbey, together with - the royal and other residences. The monks who escaped the - flames were put to the sword.--M. & Ed. - -She was not, indeed, so superstitious as to think that the glorious -Virgin would leave her seat at her Son’s right hand to come and dwell -in a desolate country, but she was desirous to see the hallowed spot -of which she had so often heard, and further she was sure that if there -were a means of escaping from a danger, the monks would certainly find -it out. At last she arrived, after passing through places so strange, -and so difficult in the going up and coming down, that, in spite of her -years and weight, she had perforce gone most of the way on foot But the -most piteous thing was, that the greater part of her servants and horses -were left dead on the way, and she had but one man and one woman with -her on arriving at Serrance, where she was charitably received by the -monks. - -There were also among the French two gentlemen who had gone to the baths -rather that they might be in the company of the ladies whose lovers -they were, than because of any failure in their health. These gentlemen, -seeing that the company was departing and that the husbands of their -ladies were taking them away, resolved to follow them at a distance -without making their design known to any one. But one evening, while the -two married gentlemen and their wives were in the house of one who was -more of a robber than a peasant, the two lovers, who were lodged in a -farmhouse hard by, heard about midnight a great uproar. They got up, -together with their serving-men, and inquired what this tumult meant. -The poor man, in great fear, told them that it was caused by certain -evil-doers who were come to share the spoil which was in the house of -their fellow-bandit. Thereupon the gentlemen immediately took their -arms, and with their serving-men set forth to succour the ladies, -esteeming it a happier thing to die for them than to outlive them. - -When they reached the house, they found the first door broken through, -and the two gentlemen with their servants defending themselves -valiantly. But inasmuch as they were outnumbered by the robbers, and -were also sorely wounded, they were beginning to fall back, having -already lost many of their servants. The two gentlemen, looking in at -the windows, perceived the ladies shrieking and sobbing so bitterly -that their hearts swelled with pity and love at the sight; and, like two -enraged bears coming down from the mountains, they fell upon the bandits -with such fury that many of them were slain, while the remainder, -unwilling to await their onset, fled to a hiding-place which was known -to them. - -When the gentlemen had worsted these rogues and had slain the host -himself among the rest, they heard that the man’s wife was even -worse than her husband; and they therefore sent her after him with a -sword-thrust. Then they entered a lower room, where they found one of -the married gentlemen on the point of death. The other had received no -hurt, save that his clothes were all pierced with thrusts and that his -sword was broken in two. The poor gentleman, perceiving what help the -two had afforded him, embraced and thanked them, and besought them not -to abandon him, which was to them a very agreeable request. When they -had buried the dead gentleman, and had comforted his wife as well -as they were able, they took the road which God set before them, not -knowing whither they were going. - -If it pleases you to know the names of the three gentlemen, the married -one was called Hircan, and his wife Parlamente, the name of the widow -being Longarine; of the two lovers one was called Dagoucin and the -other Saffredent. After having been the whole day on horseback, towards -evening they descried a belfry, whither with toil and trouble they made -the best of their way, and on their arrival were kindly received by the -Abbot and the monks. The abbey is called St. Savyn.(4) - - 4 The Abbey of St. Savin of Tarbes, situated between Argelèz - and Pierrefitte, in what was formerly called the county of - Lavedan, is stated to have been founded by Charlemagne; and - here the Paladin Roland is said to have slain the giants - Alabaster and Passamont to recompense the monks for their - hospitality. The abbey took its name from a child (the son - of a Count of Barcelona) who led a hermit’s life, and is - accredited with having performed several miracles in the - neighbourhood. About the year 1100 the Pope, siding with the - people of the valley of Aspe in a quarrel between them and - the Abbot of St. Savin, issued a bull forbidding the women - of Lavedan to conceive for a period of seven years. The - animals, moreover, were not to bring forth young, and the - trees were not to bear fruit for a like period. The edict - remained in force for six years, when the Abbot of St. Savin - compromised matters by engaging to pay an annual tribute to - Aspe. This tribute was actually paid until the Revolution of - 1789. On the other hand, the abbey was entitled to the right - shoulder of every stag, boar, and izard (the Pyrenean - chamois) killed in the valley, with other tributes of trout, - cheese, and flowers, which last the Abbot acknowledged by - kissing the prettiest maiden of Argelèz. Amongst various - privileges possessed by the monks was that of having their - beds made by the girls of the neighbourhood on certain high - days and holidays. - - In the tenth century Raymond of Bigorre presented the abbey - with the valley of Cauterets on condition that a church - should be built there and “sufficient houses kept in repair - to facilitate the using of the baths.” In 1290 Edward III. - of England confirmed the monks of St. Savin in possession of - Cauterets. In 1316, when the inhabitants of the latter place - wished to change the situation of their village, the Abbot - of St. Savin consented, but a woman opposed her veto (all - women had the right of vote) and this sufficed to frustrate - the scheme. The abbey derived a considerable income from - Cauterets, the baths and the houses built there for the - accommodation of visitors being let out on lease. The leases - of 1617 and 1697 are preserved in the archives of Pau. In - the time of Queen Margaret the abbey was extremely wealthy; - the Abbot to whom she refers, according to M. Le Roux de - Lincy, was probably Raymond de Fontaine, who ruled St. Savin - from 1534 to 1540, under the authority of the commendatory - abbots, Anthony de Rochefort and Nicholas Dangu, Bishop of - Séez. Some of the commentators of the _Heptameron_ believe - the latter to have been the original “Dagoucin” who is - supposed to tell several of the tales.--Ed. - -The Abbot, who came of an ancient line, lodged them honourably, and -when taking them to their apartments inquired of them concerning their -adventures. When he had heard the truth, he told them that others had -fared as badly as they, for in one of his rooms he had two ladies who -had escaped a like danger, or perchance a greater, inasmuch as they had -had to do with beasts, and not with men. (5) Half a league on this side -of Peyrechitte (6) the poor ladies had met with a bear coming down -from the mountain, before whom they had fled with such speed that their -horses fell dead under them at the abbey gates. Further, two of their -women who arrived a long time afterwards had made report that the bear -had killed all the serving-men. - - 5 In two MS. copies of the _Heptameron_ in the Bibliothèque - Nationale, Paris, numbered respectively 1520 and 1524, after - the words “not with men” there follows “in men there is some - mercy, but in animals none.”--L. - - 6 Peyrechitte is evidently intended for Pierrefitte, a - village on the left bank of the Gave, between Argelèz and - Cauterets.--Ed. - -Then the two ladies and the three gentlemen entered the room where these -unhappy travellers were, and found them weeping. They recognised them -to be Nomerfide and Ennasuite, whereupon they all embraced and recounted -what had befallen them. At the exhortations of the good Abbot they began -to take comfort in having found one another again, and in the morning -they heard mass with much devotion, praising God for the perils from -which they had escaped. - -While they were all at mass there came into the church (7) a man clad -only in a shirt, fleeing as though he were pursued, and crying out for -aid. Forthwith Hircan and the other gentlemen went to meet him to see -what the affair might mean, and perceived two men behind him with drawn -swords. - - (7) This church is still in existence. It is mainly in the - Romanesque style and almost destitute of ornamentation. - There are, however, some antique paintings of St. Savin’s - miracles; and the saint’s tomb, which is still preserved, is - considered to be some twelve hundred years old. The village - is gathered about the church, and forms a wide street lined - with houses of the fifteenth century, which Margaret and her - friends must have gazed upon during their sojourn here.--Ed. - -These, on seeing so great a company, sought to fly, but they were hotly -pursued by Hircan and his companions, and so lost their lives. When -Hircan came back, he found that the man in the shirt was one of his -companions named Geburon, who related to them how while he was in bed -at a farmhouse near Peyrechitte three men came upstairs, and how he, -although he was in his shirt and had no other weapon but his sword, had -stretched one of them on the ground mortally wounded. While the other -two were occupied in raising their companion, he, perceiving himself -to be naked and the others armed, bethought him that he could not -outdo them except it were by flight, as being the least encumbered with -clothes. And so he had escaped, and for this he praised God and those -who had avenged him. - -When they had heard mass and had dined they sent to see if it was -possible to cross the river Gave, and on learning that it was not, they -were in great dismay. However, the Abbot urgently entreated them to stay -with him until the water had abated, and they agreed to remain for that -day. - -In the evening, as they were going to bed, there arrived an aged monk -who was wont to come in September of every year to Our Lady of Serrance. -They inquired of him concerning his journey, and he told them that on -account of the floods he had come over the mountains and by the worst -roads he had ever known. On the way he had seen a very pitiful sight. He -had met a gentleman named Simontault, who, wearied by his long waiting -for the river to subside, and trusting to the goodness of his horse, had -tried to force a passage, and had placed all his servants round about -him to break the force of the current. But when they were in the midst -of the stream, those who were the worst mounted were swept away, horses -and men, down the stream, and were never seen again. The gentleman, -finding himself alone, turned his horse to go back, but before he could -reach the bank his horse sank under him. Nevertheless, God willed that -this should happen so close to the bank that the gentleman was able, by -dragging himself on all fours and not without swallowing a great deal of -water, to scramble out on to the hard stones, though he was then so weak -and weary that he could not stand upright. - -By good fortune a shepherd, bringing back his sheep at even, found him -seated among the stones, wet to the skin, and sad not only for himself -but on account of his servants whom he had seen perish before his eyes. -The shepherd, who understood his need even better from his appearance -than from his speech, took him by the hand and led him to his humble -dwelling, where he kindled some faggots, and so dried him in the best -way that he could. The same evening God led thither this good monk, who -showed him the road to Our Lady of Serrance assuring him that he would -be better lodged there than anywhere else, and would there find an aged -widow named Oisille who had been as unfortunate as himself. - -When all the company heard tell of the good Lady Oisille and the gentle -knight Simontault, they were exceedingly glad, and praised the Creator, -who, content with the sacrifice of serving-folk, had preserved their -masters and mistresses. And more than all the rest did Parlamente give -hearty praise to God, for Simontault had long been her devoted lover. - -Then they made diligent inquiry concerning the road to Serrance, and -although the good old man declared it to be very difficult, they were -not to be debarred from attempting to proceed thither that very day. -They set forth well furnished with all that was needful, for the Abbot -provided them with wine and abundant victuals,(8) and with willing -companions to lead them safely over the mountains. - - 8 According to MS. No. 1520 (Bib. Nat., Paris), the Abbot - also furnished them with the best horses of Lavedan and good - “cappes” of Beam. The Lavedan horses were renowned for their - speed and spirit, and the Bearnese cappe was a cloak - provided with a hood.--B. J. - -These they crossed more often on foot than on horseback, and after much -toil and sweat came to Our Lady of Serrance. Here the Abbot, although -somewhat evilly disposed, durst not deny them lodging for fear of the -Lord of Beam,(9) who, as he was aware, held them in high esteem. Being -a true hypocrite, he showed them as fair a countenance as he could, and -took them to see the Lady Oisille and the gentle knight Simontault. - - 9 The Kings of Navarre had been Lords of Beam for two - centuries, but Beam still retained its old customs and had - its special government. The Lord of Beam here referred to - was Henry d’Albret, Margaret’s second husband.--B. J. - -The joyfulness of all this company who had been thus miraculously -brought together was so great that the night seemed short to them while -praising God in the Church for the goodness that He had shown to them. -When towards morning they had taken a little rest, they all went to -hear mass and receive the holy sacrament of fellowship, in which all -Christians are joined together as one, imploring Him who of His mercy -had thus united them, that He would further their journey to His glory. -After they had dined they sent to learn whether the waters were at all -abated, and found that, on the contrary, they were rather increased, and -could not be crossed with safety for a long time to come. They therefore -determined to make a bridge resting on two rocks which come very close -together, and where there are still planks for those foot-passengers -who, coming from Oleron, wish to avoid crossing at the ford. The Abbot -was well pleased that they should make this outlay, to the end that -the number of pilgrims might be increased, and he furnished them with -workmen, though he was too avaricious to give them a single farthing. - -The workmen declared that they could not finish the bridge in less than -ten or twelve days, and all the company, both ladies and gentlemen, -began to grow weary. But Parlamente, who was Hircan’s wife, and who was -never idle or melancholy, asked leave of her husband to speak, and said -to the aged Lady Oisille-- - -“I am surprised, madam, that you who have so much experience, and now -fill the place of mother to all of us women, do not devise some pastime -to relieve the weariness we shall feel during our long stay; for if we -have not some pleasant and virtuous occupation we shall be in danger of -falling ill.” - -“Nay,” added the young widow Longarine, “worse than that, we shall -become ill-tempered, which is an incurable disease; for there is not one -among us but has cause to be exceeding downcast, having regard to our -several losses.” - -Ennasuite laughing replied-- - -“Every one has not lost her husband like you, and the loss of servants -need not bring despair, since others may readily be found. Nevertheless, -I too am of opinion that we should have some pleasant exercise with -which to while away the time, for otherwise we shall be dead by -to-morrow.” - -All the gentlemen agreed with what these ladies said, and begged Oisille -to tell them what they should do. - -“My children,” she replied, “you ask me for something which I find very -difficult to teach you, namely, a pastime that may deliver you from your -weariness. I have sought for such a remedy all my life and have never -found but one, which is the reading of the Holy Scriptures. In them the -mind may find that true and perfect joy from which repose and bodily -health proceed. If you would know by what means I continue so blithe and -healthy in my old age, it is because on rising I immediately take up the -Holy Scriptures (10) and read therein, and so perceive and contemplate -the goodness of God, who sent His Son into the world to proclaim to us -the Sacred Word and glad tidings by which He promises the remission of -all sins and the satisfaction of all debts by the gift that He has made -us of His love, passion, and merits. - - 10 Margaret read a portion of the Scriptures every day, - saying that the perusal preserved one “from all sorts of - evils and diabolical temptations” (_Histoire de Foix, Béarn, - et Navarre_, by P. Olhagaray, Paris, 1609, p. 502).--L. - -“The thought of this gives me such joy that I take my Psalter and in all -humility sing with my heart and utter with my lips the sweet psalms and -canticles which the Holy Spirit put into the heart of David and of other -writers. And so acceptable is the contentment that this brings to -me, that any evils which may befall me during the day I look upon as -blessings, seeing that I have in my heart, through faith, Him who has -borne them all for me. In the same way before supper I retire to feed my -soul by reading, and then in the evening I call to mind all I have done -during the past day, in order that I may ask forgiveness for my sins, -thank Him for His mercies, and, feeling safe from all harm, take my rest -in His love, fear, and peace. This, my children, is the pastime I have -long practised, after making trial of all others and finding in none -contentment of spirit. I believe that if you give an hour every morning -to reading and then offer up devout prayers during mass, you will find -in this lonely place all the beauty that any town could afford. One who -knows God sees all things fair in Him, and without Him everything seems -uncomely; wherefore, I pray you, accept my advice, if you would live in -gladness.” - -Then Hircan took up the discourse and said-- - -“Those, madam, who have read the Holy Scriptures, as I believe we all -have done, will acknowledge that what you have said is true. You must, -however, consider that we are not yet so mortified that we have not need -of some pastime and bodily exercise. When we are at home we have the -chase and hawking, which cause us to lay aside a thousand foolish -thoughts, and the ladies have their household cares, their work, and -sometimes the dance, in all which they find honourable exercise. So, -speaking on behalf of the men, I propose that you, who are the oldest, -read to us in the morning about the life that was led by Our Lord Jesus -Christ and the great and wonderful works that He did for us; and that -between dinner and vespers we choose some pastime that shall be pleasant -to the body and yet not hurtful to the soul. In this way we shall pass -the day cheerfully.” - -The Lady Oisille replied that she had been at pains to forget every -description of worldly vanity, and she therefore feared that she should -succeed but ill in the choice of such an entertainment. The matter must -be decided by the majority of opinions, and she begged Hircan to set -forth his own first. - -“For my part,” said he, “if I thought that the pastime I should choose -would be as agreeable to the company as to myself, my opinion would soon -be given. For the present, however, I withhold it, and will abide by -what the rest shall say.” - -His wife Parlamente, thinking he referred to her, began to blush, and, -half in anger and half laughing, replied-- - -“Perhaps, Hircan, she who you think would find it most dull might -readily find means of compensation had she a mind for it. But let us -leave aside a pastime in which only two can share, and speak of one that -shall be common to all.” - -“Since my wife has understood the meaning of my words so well,” said -Hircan to all the ladies, “and a private pastime is not to her liking, I -think she will be better able than any one else to name one that all -may enjoy; and I herewith give in to her opinion, having no other of my -own.” - -To this all the company agreed. - -Parlamente, perceiving that it had fallen to her to decide, spoke as -follows-- - -“Did I find myself as capable as the ancients who invented the arts, I -should devise some sport or pastime in fulfilment of the charge you -lay upon me. But knowing as I do my knowledge and capacity, which are -scarcely able to recall the worthy performances of others, I shall think -myself happy if I can follow closely such as have already satisfied your -request. Among the rest, I think there is not one of you who has not -read the Hundred Tales of Boccaccio, (11) lately translated from the -Italian into French. So highly were these thought of by King Francis, -first of that name, Monseigneur the Dauphin, (12) Madame the Dauphiness, -and Madame Margaret, that could Boccaccio have only heard them from the -place where he lay, the praise of such illustrious persons would have -raised him from the dead. - - 11 Margaret here alludes to the French translation of the - _Decameron_ made by her secretary, Anthony le Maçon, and - first issued in Paris in 1545. Messrs. De Lincy and - Montaiglon accordingly think that the prologue of the - _Heptameron_ was written subsequently to that date; but M. - Dillaye states that Le Maçon’s translation was circulated at - Court in manuscript long before it was printed. This - contention is in some measure borne out by Le Maçon’s - dedication to Margaret, of which the more interesting - passages are given in the Appendix to this volume (A).--ED. - - 12 The Dauphin here mentioned is Francis I.’s second son, - who subsequently reigned as Henry II. He became Dauphin by - the death of his elder brother on August 10, 1536. The - Dauphiness is Catherine de’ Medici, the wife of Henry, whom - he married in 1533; whilst Madame Margaret, according to M. - de Montaiglon, is the Queen of Navarre herself, she being - usually called by that name at her brother’s Court. M. - Dillaye, who is of a different opinion, maintains that the - Queen would not write so eulogistically of herself, and that - she evidently refers to her brother’s daughter, Margaret de - Berry, born in 1523, and married to the Duke of Savoy.--Ed. - -Now I heard not long since that the two ladies I have mentioned, -together with several others of the Court, determined to do like -Boccaccio, with, however, one exception--they would not write any -story that was not a true one. And the said ladies, and Monseigneur the -Dauphin with them, undertook to tell ten stories each, and to assemble -in all ten persons, from among those whom they thought the most capable -of relating something. Such as had studied and were people of letters -were excepted, for Monseigneur the Dauphin would not allow of their art -being brought in, fearing lest the flowers of rhetoric should in some -wise prove injurious to the truth of the tales. But the weighty affairs -in which the King had engaged, the peace between him and the King of -England, the bringing to bed of the Dauphiness,(13) and many other -matters of a nature to engross the whole Court, caused the enterprise to -be entirely forgotten. - - 13 The confinement mentioned here is that of Catherine de - Medici, who, after remaining childless during ten years of - wedlock, gave birth to a son, afterwards Francis II., in - January 1543. The peace previously spoken of would appear to - be that signed at Crespy in September 1544. Both M. de - Montaiglon and M. Dillaye are of opinion, however, that a - word or two is deficient in the MS., and that Margaret - intended to imply the rupture of peace in 1543, when Henry - VIII. allied himself with the Emperor Charles V. against - Francis I.--Ed. - -By reason, however, of our now great leisure, it can be accomplished in -ten days, whilst we wait for our bridge to be finished. If it so pleased -you, we might go every day from noon till four of the clock into yonder -pleasant meadow beside the river Gave. The trees there are so leafy that -the sun can neither penetrate the shade nor change the coolness to heat. -Sitting there at our ease, we might each one tell a story of something -we have ourselves seen, or heard related by one worthy of belief. At -the end of ten days we shall have completed the hundred,(14) and if -God wills it that our work be found worthy in the eyes of the lords and -ladies I have mentioned, we will on our return from this journey present -them with it, in lieu of images and paternosters,(15) and feeling -assured that they will hold this to be a more pleasing gift. If, -however, any one can devise some plan more agreeable than mine, I will -fall in with his opinion.” - - 14 This passage plainly indicates that the Queen meant to - pen a Decameron.--Ed. - - 15 This is an allusion to the holy images, medals, and - chaplets which people brought back with them from - pilgrimages.--B. J. - -All the company replied that it was not possible to give better advice, -and that they awaited the morning in impatience, in order to begin. - -Thus they spent that day joyously, reminding one another of what they -had seen in their time. As soon as the morning was come they went to -the room of Madame Oisille, whom they found already at her prayers. They -listened to her reading for a full hour, then piously heard mass, and -afterwards went to dinner at ten o’clock.(16) - - 16 At that period ten o’clock was the Court dinner-hour. - Fifty years earlier people used to dine at eight in the - morning. Louis XII., however, changed the hour of his meals - to suit his wife, Mary of England, who had been accustomed - to dine at noon.--B. J. - -After dinner each one withdrew to his chamber, and did what he had to -do. According to their plan, at noon they failed not to return to the -meadow, which was so fair and pleasant that it would need a Boccaccio -to describe it as it really was; suffice to say that a fairer was never -seen. - -When the company were all seated on the green grass, which was so -fine and soft that they needed neither cushion nor carpet, Simontault -commenced by saying-- - -“Which of us shall begin before the others?” - -“Since you were the first to speak,” replied Hircan, “’tis reasonable -that you should rule us; for in sport we are all equal.” - -“Would to God,” said Simontault, “I had no worse fortune in this world -than to be able to rule all the company present.” - -On hearing this Parlamente, who well knew what it meant, began to -cough. Hircan, therefore, did not perceive the colour that came into her -cheeks, but told Simontault to begin, which he did as presently follows. - - -[Illustration: 039a.jpg Du Mesnil learns his Mistress’s Infidelity from her Maid] - -[Du Mesnil learns his Mistress’s Infidelity from her Maid] - -[Illustration: 039.jpg Page Image] - - - - -FIRST DAY. - -_On the First Day are recounted the ill-turns which -have been done by Women to Men and by -Men to Women._ - - - - -_TALE I_. - - _The wife of a Proctor, having been pressingly solicited by - the Bishop of Sees, took him for her profit, and, being as - little satisfied with him as with her husband, found a means - to have the son of the Lieutenant-General of Alençon for her - pleasure. Some time afterwards she caused the latter to be - miserably murdered by her husband, who, although he obtained - pardon for the murder, was afterwards sent to the galleys - with a sorcerer named Gallery; and all this was brought - about by the wickedness of his wife_.(1) - - - 1 The incidents of this story are historical, and occurred - in Alençon and Paris between 1520 and 1525.--L. - -Ladies, said Simontault, I have been so poorly rewarded for my long -service, that to avenge myself upon Love, and upon her who treats me so -cruelly, I shall be at pains to make a collection of all the ill turns -that women hath done to hapless men; and moreover I will relate nothing -but the simple truth. - -In the town of Alençon, during the lifetime of Charles, the last -Duke,(2) there was a Proctor named St. Aignan, who had married a -gentlewoman of the neighbourhood. She was more beautiful than virtuous, -and on account of her beauty and light behaviour was much sought after -by the Bishop of Sees,(3) who, in order to compass his ends, managed the -husband so well, that the latter not only failed to perceive the vicious -conduct of his wife and of the Bishop, but was further led to forget the -affection he had always shown in the service of his master and mistress. - - 2 The Duke Charles here alluded to is Margaret’s first - husband.--Ed. - - 3 Sees or Séez, on the Orne, thirteen miles from Alençon, - and celebrated for its Gothic cathedral, is one of the - oldest bishoprics in Normandy. Richard Coeur-de-Lion is said - to have here done penance and obtained absolution for his - conduct towards his father, Henry II. At the time of this - story the Bishop of Sees was James de Silly, whose father, - also James de Silly, Lord of Lonray, Vaux-Pacey, &c, a - favourite and chamberlain of King Louis XII., became Master - of the Artillery of France in 1501. The second James de - Silly--born at Caen--was ordained Bishop of Sees on February - 26th, 1511; he was also Abbot of St. Vigor and St. Pierre- - sur-Dives, where he restored and beautified the abbatial - church. In 1519 he consecrated a convent for women of noble - birth, founded by Margaret and her first husband at Essey, - twenty miles from Alençon, the ruins of which still exist. A - year later Francis Rometens dedicated to him an edition of - the letters of Pico della Mirandola. He died April 24th, - 1539, at Fleury-sur-Aiidellé, about fifteen miles from - Rouen, and was buried in his episcopal church. (See _Gallia - Christiana_, vol. xi. p. 702.) His successor in the See of - Sees was Nicholas Danguye, or Dangu (a natural son of - Cardinal Duprat), with whom M. Frank tries to identify - Dagoucin, one of the narrators of the _Heptameron_.--L. and - Ed. - -Thus, from being a loyal servant, he became utterly adverse to them, and -at last sought out sorcerers to procure the death of the Duchess.(4) -Now for a long time the Bishop consorted with this unhappy woman, who -submitted to him from avarice rather than from love, and also because -her husband urged her to show him favour. But there was a youth in the -town of Alençon, son of the Lieutenant-General,(5) whom she loved -so much that she was half crazy regarding him; and she often availed -herself of the Bishop to have some commission intrusted to her husband, -so that she might see the son of the Lieutenant, who was named Du -Mesnil, at her ease. - - 4 This was of course Margaret herself.--Ed - - 5 Gilles du Mesnil, Lieutenant-General of the presidial - bailiwick and Sénéchaussée of Alençon.--B. J. - -This mode of life lasted a long time, during which she had the Bishop -for her profit and the said Du Mesnil for her pleasure. To the latter -she swore that she showed a fair countenance to the Bishop only that -their own love might the more freely continue; that the Bishop, in -spite of appearances, had obtained only words, from her; and that he, -Du Mesnil, might rest assured that no man, save himself, should ever -receive aught else. - -One day, when her husband was setting forth to visit the Bishop, she -asked leave of him to go into the country, saying that the air of the -town was injurious to her; and, when she had arrived at her farm, she -forthwith wrote to Du Mesnil to come and see her, without fail, at -about ten o’clock in the evening. This the young man did; but as he was -entering at the gate he met the maid who was wont to let him in, and who -said to him, “Go elsewhere, friend, for your place is taken.” - -Supposing that the husband had arrived, he asked her how matters stood. -The woman, seeing that he was so handsome, youthful, and well-bred, and -was withal so loving and yet so little loved, took pity upon him and -told him of his mistress’s wantonness, thinking that on hearing this he -would be cured of loving her so much. She related to him that the Bishop -of Sees had but just arrived, and was now in bed with the lady, a thing -which the latter had not expected, for he was not to have come until -the morrow. However, he had detained her husband at his house, and had -stolen away at night to come secretly and see her. If ever man was in -despair it was Du Mesnil, who nevertheless was quite unable to believe -the story. He hid himself, however, in a house near by, and watched -until three hours after midnight, when he saw the Bishop come forth -disguised, yet not so completely but that he could recognise him more -readily than he desired. - -Du Mesnil in his despair returned to Alençon, whither, likewise, his -wicked mistress soon came, and went to speak to him, thinking to deceive -him according to her wont. But he told her that, having touched sacred -things, she was too holy to speak to a sinner like himself, albeit -his repentance was so great that he hoped his sin would very soon be -forgiven him. When she learnt that her deceit was found out, and that -excuses, oaths, and promises never to act in a like way again were of -no avail, she complained of it to her Bishop. Then, having weighed the -matter with him, she went to her husband and told him that she could no -longer dwell in the town of Alençon, for the Lieutenant’s son, whom he -had so greatly esteemed among his friends, pursued her unceasingly -to rob her of her honour. She therefore begged of him to abide at -Argentan,(6) in order that all suspicion might be removed. - - 6 Argentan, on the Orne, twenty-six miles from Alençon, had - been a distinct viscounty, but at this period it belonged to - the duchy of Alençon.--Ed. - -The husband, who suffered himself to be ruled by his wife, consented; -but they had not been long at Argentan when this bad woman sent a -message to Du Mesnil, saying that he was the wickedest man in the world, -for she knew full well that he had spoken evilly (sic.) of her and -of the Bishop of Sees; however, she would strive her best to make him -repent of it. - -The young man, who had never spoken of the matter except to herself, -and who feared to fall into the bad graces of the Bishop, repaired to -Argentan with two of his servants, and finding his mistress at vespers -in the church of the Jacobins,(7) he went and knelt beside her, and -said-- - -“I am come hither, madam, to swear to you before God that I have never -spoken of your honour to any person but yourself. You treated me so ill -that I did not make you half the reproaches you deserved; but if there -be man or woman ready to say that I have ever spoken of the matter to -them, I am here to give them the lie in your presence.” - - 7 The name of Jacobins was given to the monks of the - Dominican Order, some of whom had a monastery in the suburbs - of Argentan.--Ed. - -Seeing that there were many people in the church, and that he was -accompanied by two stout serving-men, she forced herself to speak as -graciously as she could. She told him that she had no doubt he spoke the -truth, and that she deemed him too honourable a man to make evil report -of any one in the world; least of all of herself, who bore him so much -friendship; but since her husband had heard the matter spoken of, she -begged him to say in his presence that he had not so spoken and did not -so believe. - -To this he willingly agreed, and, wishing to attend her to her house, he -offered to take her arm; but she told him it was not desirable that he -should come with her, for her husband would think that she had put these -words into his mouth. Then, taking one of his serving-men by the sleeve, -she said-- - -“Leave me this man, and as soon as it is time I will send him to seek -you. Meanwhile do you go and rest in your lodging.” - -He, having no suspicion of her conspiracy against him, went thither. - -She gave supper to the serving-man whom she had kept with her, and who -frequently asked her when it would be time to go and seek his master; -but she always replied that his master would come soon enough. When it -was night, she sent one of her own serving-men to fetch Du Mesnil; and -he, having no suspicion of the mischief that was being prepared for -him, went boldly to St. Aignan’s house. As his mistress was still -entertaining his servant there, he had but one with himself. - -Just as he was entering the house, the servant who had been sent to -him told him that the lady wished to speak with him before he saw her -husband, and that she was waiting for him in a room where she was alone -with his own serving-man; he would therefore do well to send his other -servant away by the front door. This he did. Then while he was going up -a small, dark stairway, the Proctor St. Aignan, who had placed some -men in ambush in a closet, heard the noise, and demanded what it was; -whereupon he was told that a man was trying to enter secretly into his -house. - -At the moment, a certain Thomas Guérin, a murderer by trade, who had -been hired by the Proctor for the purpose, came forward and gave the -poor young man so many sword-thrusts that whatever defence he was able -to make could not save him from falling dead in their midst. - -Meanwhile the servant who was waiting with the lady, said to her-- - -“I hear my master speaking on the stairway. I will go to him.” - -But the lady stopped him and said-- - -“Do not trouble yourself; he will come soon enough.” - -A little while afterwards the servant, hearing his master say, “I am -dying, may God receive my soul!” wished to go to his assistance, but the -lady again withheld him, saying-- - -“Do not trouble yourself; my husband is only chastising him for his -follies. We will go and see what it is.” - -Then, leaning over the balustrade at the top of the stairway, she asked -her husband-- - -“Well, is it done?” - -“Come and see,” he replied. “I have now avenged you on the man who put -you to such shame.” - -So saying, he drove a dagger that he was holding ten or twelve times -into the belly of a man whom, alive, he would not have dared to assail. - -When the murder had been accomplished, and the two servants of the dead -man had fled to carry the tidings to the unhappy father, St. Aignan -bethought himself that the matter could not be kept secret. But he -reflected that the testimony of the dead man’s servants would not be -believed, and that no one in his house had seen the deed done, except -the murderers, and an old woman-servant, and a girl fifteen years of -age. He secretly tried to seize the old woman, but, finding means to -escape out of his hands, she sought sanctuary with the Jacobins,(8) and -was afterwards the most trustworthy witness of the murder. The young -maid remained for a few days in St. Aignan’s house, but he found means -to have her led astray by one of the murderers, and had her conveyed to -a brothel in Paris so that her testimony might not be received.(9) - - 8 It was still customary to take sanctuary in churches, - monasteries, and convents at this date, although but little - respect was shown for the refugees, whose hiding-places were - often surrounded so that they might be kept without food and - forced to surrender. After being considerably restricted by - an edict issued in 1515, the right of sanctuary was - abolished by Francis I. in 1539.--B. J. and D. - - 9 Prostitutes were debarred from giving evidence in French - courts of law at this period.--D. - -To conceal the murder, he caused the corpse of the hapless dead man to -be burnt, and the bones which were not consumed by the fire he caused to -be placed in some mortar in a part of his house where he was building. -Then he sent in all haste to the Court to sue for pardon, setting -forth that he had several times forbidden his house to a person whom he -suspected of plotting his wife’s dishonour, and who, notwithstanding -his prohibition, had come by night to see her in a suspicious fashion; -whereupon, finding him in the act of entering her room, his anger had -got the better of his reason and he had killed him. - -But before he was able to despatch his letter to the Chancellor’s, the -Duke and Duchess had been apprised by the unhappy father of the matter, -and they sent a message to the Chancellor to prevent the granting of the -pardon. Finding he could not obtain it, the wretched man fled to England -with his wife and several of his relations. But before setting out he -told the murderer who at his entreaty had done the deed, that he had -seen expresses from the King directing that he should be taken and put -to death. Nevertheless, on account of the service that he had rendered -him, he desired to save his life, and he gave him ten crowns wherewith -to leave the kingdom. The murderer did this, and was afterwards seen no -more. - -The murder was so fully proven by the servants of the dead man, by the -woman who had taken refuge with the Jacobins, and by the bones that were -found in the mortar, that legal proceedings were begun and completed in -the absence of St. Aignan and his wife. They were judged by default -and were both condemned to death. Their property was confiscated to the -Prince, and fifteen hundred crowns were to be given to the dead man’s -father to pay the costs of the trial. - -St. Aignan being in England and perceiving that in the eyes of the law -he was dead in France, by means of his services to divers great lords -and by the favour of his wife’s relations, induced the King of England -(10) to request the King of France (11) to grant him a pardon and -restore him to his possessions and honours. But the King of France, -having been informed of the wickedness and enormity of the crime, sent -the process to the King of England, praying him to consider whether the -offence was one deserving of pardon, and telling him that no one in the -kingdom but the Duke of Alençon had the right to grant a pardon in that -duchy. However, notwithstanding all his excuses, he failed to appease -the King of England, who continued to entreat him so very pressingly -that, at his request, the Proctor at last received a pardon and so -returned to his own home.(12) There, to complete his wickedness, he -consorted with a sorcerer named Gallery, hoping that by this man’s art -he might escape payment of the fifteen hundred crowns to the dead man’s -father. - - 10 Henry VIII. - - 11 Francis I. - - 12 The letters of remission which were granted to St. Aignan - on this occasion will be found in the Appendix to the First - Day (B). It will be noted that Margaret in her story gives - various particulars which St. Aignan did not fail to conceal - in view of obtaining his pardon.--L. - -To this end he went in disguise to Paris with his wife. She, finding -that he used to shut himself up for a great while in a room with Gallery -without acquainting her with the reason thereof, spied upon him one -morning, and perceived Gallery showing him five wooden images, three of -which had their hands hanging down, whilst two had them lifted up.(13) - -“We must make waxen images like these,” said Gallery, speaking to the -Proctor. “Such as have their arms hanging down will be for those whom -we shall cause to die, and the others with their arms raised will be for -the persons from whom you would fain have love and favour.” - -“This one,” said the Proctor, “shall be for the King by whom I would -fain be loved, and this one for Monseigneur Brinon, Chancellor of -Alençon.” (14) - - 13 This refers to the superstitious practice called - _envoûtement_, which, according to M. Léon de Laborde, was - well known in France in 1316, and subsisted until the - sixteenth century. In 1330 the famous Robert d’Artois, upon - retiring to Brabant, occupied himself with pricking waxen - images which represented King Philip VI., his brother-in- - law, and the Queen, his sister. (_Mémoires de l’Académie des - Inscriptions_, vol. xv. p. 426.) During the League the - enemies of Henri III. and the King of Navarre revived this - practice.--(L.) It would appear also from a document in the - Harley MSS. (18,452, Bib. N’at., Paris) that Cosmo Ruggieri, - the Florentine astrologer, Catherine de’ Medici’s - confidential adviser, was accused in 1574 of having made a - wax figure in view of casting a spell upon Charles IX.--M. - - 14 John Brinon, Councillor of the King, President of the - Parliament of Rouen, Chancellor of Alençon and Berry, Lord - of Villaines (near Dreux), Remy, and Athueuil (near - Montfort-l’Amaury), belonged to an old family of judicial - functionaries. He was highly esteemed by Margaret, several - of whose letters are addressed to him, and he was present at - the signing of her marriage contract with Henry II. of - Navarre (Génin’s _Lettres de Marguerite_, p. 444). He - married Pernelle Perdrier, who brought him the lordship of - Médan, near Poissy, and other important fiefs, which after - his death she presented to the King. His praises were sung - by Le Chandelier, the poet; and M. Floquet, in his History - of the Parliament of Normandy, states that Brinon rendered - most important services to France as a negotiator in Italy - in 1521, and in England in 1524. The _Journal d’un Bourgeois - de Paris_ mentions that he died in Paris in 1528, aged - forty-four, and was buried in the Church of St. Severin.--L. - According to La Croix du Maine’s _Bibliothèque Françoise_, - Brinon was the author of a poem entitled _Les Amours de - Sydire_.--B. J. - -“The images,” said Gallery, “must be set under the altar, to hear mass, -with words that I will presently tell you to say.” - -Then, speaking of those images that had their arms lowered, the Proctor -said that one should be for Master Gilles du Mesnil, father of the dead -man, for he knew that as long as the father lived he would not cease to -pursue him. Moreover, one of the women with their hands hanging down was -to be for the Duchess of Alençon, sister to the King; for she bore -so much love to her old servant, Du Mesnil, and had in so many other -matters become acquainted with the Proctor’s wickedness, that except she -died he could not live. The second woman that had her arms hanging down -was his own wife, who was the cause of all his misfortune, and who he -felt sure would never amend her evil life. - -When his wife, who could see everything through the keyhole, heard him -placing her among the dead, she resolved to send him among them first. -On pretence of going to borrow some money, she went to an uncle she had, -named Neaufle, who was Master of Requests to the Duke of Alençon, and -informed him of what she had seen and heard. Neaufle, like the old and -worthy servant that he was, went forthwith to the Chancellor of Alençon -and told him the whole story. - -As the Duke and Duchess of Alençon were not at Court that day, the -Chancellor related this strange business to the Regent,(15) mother of -the King and the Duchess, and she sent in all haste for the Provost of -Paris,(16) who made such speed that he at once seized the Proctor -and his sorcerer, Gallery. Without constraint or torture they freely -confessed their guilt, and their case was made out and laid before the -King. - - 15 Louise of Savoy. - - 16 John de la Barre, a favourite of Francis I. See note to - Tale lxiii. (vol. v.), in which he plays a conspicuous - part.--Ed. - -Certain persons, wishing to save their lives, told him that they had -only sought his good graces by their enchantments; but the King, holding -his sister’s life as dear as his own, commanded that the same sentence -should be passed on them as if they had made an attempt on his own -person. - -However, his sister, the Duchess of Alençon, entreated that the -Proctor’s life might be spared, and the sentence of death be commuted to -some heavy punishment. This request was granted her, and St. Aignan -and Gallery were sent to the galleys of St. Blancart at Marseilles,(17) -where they ended their days in close captivity, and had leisure to -ponder on the grievousness of their crimes. The wicked wife, in the -absence of her husband, continued in her sinful ways even more than -before, and at last died in wretchedness. - - 17 This passage is explained by Henri Bouché, who states in - his _Histoire Chronologique de Provence_ (vol. ii. p. 554), - that after Francis I.’s voyage in captivity to Spain it was - judged expedient that France should have several galleys in - the Mediterranean, and that “orders were accordingly given - for thirteen to be built at Marseilles--four for the Baron - de Saint-Blancart, as many for Andrew Doria, &c.” The Baron - de Saint-Blancart here referred to was Bernard d’Ormezan, - Admiral of the seas of the Levant, Conservator of the ports - and tower of Aigues-Mortes, and General of the King’s - galleys. In 1523 he defeated the naval forces of the Emperor - Charles V., and in 1525 conducted Margaret to Spain.--L. - (See Memoir of Margaret, p. xli.) - -“I pray you, ladies, consider what evil is caused by a wicked woman, -and how many evils sprang from the sins of the one I have spoken of. -You will find that ever since Eve caused Adam to sin, all women have set -themselves to bring about the torment, slaughter and damnation of men. -For myself, I have had such experience of their cruelty that I expect to -die and be damned simply by reason of the despair into which one of them -has cast me. And yet so great a fool am I, that I cannot but confess -that hell coming from her hand is more pleasing than Paradise would be -from the hand of another.” - -Parlamente, pretending she did not understand that it was touching -herself he spoke in this fashion, said to him-- - -“Since hell is as pleasant as you say, you ought not to fear the devil -who has placed you in it.” - -“If my devil were to become as black as he has been cruel to me,” - answered Simontault angrily, “he would cause the present company as much -fright as I find pleasure in looking upon them; but the fires of -love make me forget those of this hell. However, to speak no further -concerning this matter, I give my vote to Madame Oisille to tell the -second story. I feel sure she would support my opinion if she were -willing to say what she knows about women.” - -Forthwith all the company turned towards Oisille, and begged of her to -proceed, to which she consented, and, laughing, began as follows-- - -“It seems to me, ladies, that he who has given me his vote has spoken so -ill of our sex in his true story of a wicked woman, that I must call to -mind all the years of my long life to find one whose virtue will suffice -to gainsay his evil opinion. However, as I have bethought me of one -worthy to be remembered, I will now relate her history to you.” - - -[Illustration: 056.jpg Tailpiece] - -[Illustration: 057a.jpg The Muleteer’s Servant attacking his Mistress] - -[The Muleteer’s Servant attacking his Mistress] - -[Illustration: 057.jpg Page Image] - - - - -_TALE II._ - - _The wife of a muleteer of Amboise chose rather to die - cruelly at the hands of her servant than to fall in with his - wicked purpose_.(1) - -In the town of Amboise there was a muleteer in the service of the Queen -of Navarre, sister to King Francis, first of that name. She being -at Blois, where she had been brought to bed of a son, the aforesaid -muleteer went thither to receive his quarterly payment, whilst his wife -remained at Amboise in a lodging beyond the bridges.(2) - - 1 The incidents of this story probably took place at - Amboise, subsequent, however, to the month of August 1530, - when Margaret was confined of her son John.--L. - - 2 Amboise is on the left bank of the Loire, and there have - never been any buildings on the opposite bank. However, - the bridge over the river intersects the island of St. Jean, - which is covered with houses, and here the muleteer’s wife - evidently resided.--M. - -Now it happened that one of her husband’s servants had long loved her -exceedingly, and one day he could not refrain from speaking of it -to her. She, however, being a truly virtuous woman, rebuked him so -severely, threatening to have him beaten and dismissed by her husband, -that from that time forth he did not venture to speak to her in any such -way again or to let his love be seen, but kept the fire hidden within -his breast until the day when his master had gone from home and his -mistress was at vespers at St. Florentin,(3) the castle church, a long -way from the muleteer’s house. - - 3 The Church of St. Florentin here mentioned must not be - confounded with that of the same name near one of the gates - of Amboise. Erected in the tenth century by Foulques Nera of - Anjou, it was a collegiate church, and was attended by the - townsfolk, although it stood within the precincts of the - château. For this reason Queen Margaret calls it the castle - church.--Ed. - -Whilst he was alone the fancy took him that he might obtain by force -what neither prayer nor service had availed to procure him, and -accordingly he broke through a wooden partition which was between -the chamber where his mistress slept and his own. The curtains of his -master’s bed on the one side and of the servant’s bed on the other -so covered the walls as to hide the opening he had made; and thus his -wickedness was not perceived until his mistress was in bed, together -with a little girl eleven or twelve years old. - -When the poor woman was in her first sleep, the servant, in his shirt -and with his naked sword in his hand, came through the opening he had -made in the wall into her bed; but as soon as she felt him beside her, -she leaped out, addressing to him all such reproaches as a virtuous -woman might utter. His love, however, was but bestial, and he would -have better understood the language of his mules than her honourable -reasonings; indeed, he showed himself even more bestial than the beasts -with whom he had long consorted. Finding she ran so quickly round a -table that he could not catch her, and that she was strong enough to -break away from him twice, he despaired of ravishing her alive, and -dealt her a terrible sword-thrust in the loins, thinking that, if fear -and force had not brought her to yield, pain would assuredly do so. - -The contrary, however, happened, for just as a good soldier, on seeing -his own blood, is the more fired to take vengeance on his enemies and -win renown, so her chaste heart gathered new strength as she ran fleeing -from the hands of the miscreant, saying to him the while all she could -think of to bring him to see his guilt. But so filled was he with rage -that he paid no heed to her words. He dealt her several more thrusts, to -avoid which she continued running as long as her legs could carry her. - -When, after great loss of blood, she felt that death was near, she -lifted her eyes to heaven, clasped her hands and gave thanks to God, -calling Him her strength, her patience, and her virtue, and praying -Him to accept her blood which had been shed for the keeping of His -commandment and in reverence of His Son, through whom she firmly -believed all her sins to be washed away and blotted out from the -remembrance of His wrath. - -As she was uttering the words, “Lord, receive the soul that has been -redeemed by Thy goodness,” she fell upon her face to the ground. - -Then the miscreant dealt her several thrusts, and when she had lost both -power of speech and strength of body, and was no longer able to make any -defence, he ravished her.(4) - - 4 Brantôme, in his account of Mary Queen of Scots, quotes - this story. After mentioning that the headsman remained - alone with the Queen’s decapitated corpse, he adds: “He then - took off her shoes and handled her as he pleased. It is - suspected that he treated her in the same way as that - miserable muleteer, in the Hundred Stories of the Queen of - Navarre, treated the poor woman he killed. Stranger - temptations than this come to men. After he (the - executioner) had done as he chose, the (Queen’s) body was - carried into a room adjoining that of her servants.” - Lalanne’s _OEuvres de Brantôme_, vol. vii. p. 438.--M. - -Having thus satisfied his wicked lust, he fled in haste, and in spite of -all pursuit was never seen again. - -The little girl, who was in bed with the muleteer’s wife, had hidden -herself under the bed in her fear; but on seeing that the man was gone, -she came to her mistress. Finding her to be without speech or movement, -she called to the neighbours from the window for aid; and as they loved -and esteemed her mistress as much as any woman that belonged to the -town, they came forthwith, bringing surgeons with them. The latter -found that she had received twenty-five mortal wounds in her body, and -although they did what they could to help her, it was all in vain. - -Nevertheless she lingered for an hour longer without speaking, yet -making signs with eye and hand to show that she had not lost her -understanding. Being asked by a priest in what faith she died, she -answered, by signs as plain as any speech, that she placed her hope of -salvation in Jesus Christ alone; and so with glad countenance and eyes -upraised to heaven her chaste body yielded up its soul to its Creator. - -Just as the corpse, having been laid out and shrouded,(5) was placed -at the door to await the burial company, the poor husband arrived and -beheld his wife’s body in front of his house before he had even received -tidings of her death. He inquired the cause of this, and found that he -had double occasion to grieve; and his grief was indeed so great that it -nearly killed him. - - 5 Common people were then buried in shrouds, not in coffins. - --Ed. - -This martyr of chastity was buried in the Church of St. Florentin, and, -as was their duty, all the upright women of Amboise failed not to show -her every possible honour, deeming themselves fortunate in belonging to -a town where so virtuous a woman had been found. And seeing the honour -that was shown to the deceased, such women as were wanton and unchaste -resolved to amend their lives. - -“This, ladies, is a true story, which should incline us more strongly to -preserve the fair virtue of chastity. We who are of gentle blood should -die of shame on feeling in our hearts that worldly lust to avoid which -the poor wife of a muleteer shrank not from so cruel a death. Some -esteem themselves virtuous women who have never like this one resisted -unto the shedding of blood. It is fitting that we should humble -ourselves, for God does not vouchsafe His grace to men because of their -birth or riches, but according as it pleases His own good-will. He pays -no regard to persons, but chooses according to His purpose; and he whom -He chooses He honours with all virtues. And often He chooses the lowly -to confound those whom the world exalts and honours; for, as He Himself -hath told us, ‘Let us not rejoice in our merits, but rather because our -names are written in the Book of Life, from which nor death, nor hell, -nor sin can blot them out.’” (6) - - 6 These are not the exact words of Scripture, but a - combination of several passages from the Book of - Revelation.--Ed. - -There was not a lady in the company but had tears of compassion in her -eyes for the pitiful and glorious death of the muleteer’s wife. Each -thought within herself that, should fortune serve her in the same way, -she would strive to imitate this poor woman in her martyrdom. Oisille, -however, perceiving that time was being lost in praising the dead woman, -said to Saffredent-- - -“Unless you can tell us something that will make the company laugh, I -think none of them will forgive me for the fault I have committed in -making them weep; wherefore I give you my vote for your telling of the -third story.” - -Saffredent, who would gladly have recounted something agreeable to the -company, and above all to one amongst the ladies, said that it was -not for him to speak, seeing that there were others older and better -instructed than himself, who should of right come first. Nevertheless, -since the lot had fallen upon himself, he would rather have done with it -at once, for the more numerous the good speakers before him, the worse -would his own tale appear. - -[Illustration: 064.jpg Tailpiece] - -[Illustration: 065a.jpg The Stags Head] - -[The King Joking upon the Stag’s Head being A fitting Decoration] - -[Illustration: 065.jpg Page Image] - - - - -_TALE III._ - - _The Queen of Naples, being wronged by King Alfonso, her - husband, revenged herself with a gentleman whose wife was - the King’s mistress; and this intercourse lasted all their - lives without the King at any time having suspicion of - it_.(1) - -I have often desired, ladies, to be a sharer in the good fortune of the -man whose story I am about to relate to you. You must know that in the -time of King Alfonso,(2) whose lust was the sceptre of his kingdom,(3) -there lived in the town of Naples a gentleman, so honourable, comely, -and pleasant that his perfections induced an old gentleman to give him -his daughter in marriage. - - 1 This story is historical. The events occurred at Naples - cir. 1450.--L. - - 2 The King spoken of in this story must be Alfonso V., King - of Aragon, who was born in 1385, and succeeded his father, - Ferdinand the Just, in 1416. He had already made various - expeditions to Sardinia and Corsica, when, in 1421, Jane II. - of Naples begged of him to assist her in her contest against - Louis of Anjou. Alfonso set sail for Italy as requested, but - speedily quarrelled with Jane, on account of the manner in - which he treated her lover, the Grand Seneschal Caraccioli. - Jane, at her death in 1438, bequeathed her crown to René, - brother of Louis of Anjou, whose claims Alfonso immediately - opposed. Whilst blockading Gaëta he was defeated and - captured, but ultimately set at liberty, whereupon he - resumed the war. In 1442 he at last secured possession of - Naples, and compelled René to withdraw from Italy. From that - time Alfonso never returned to Spain, but settling himself - in his Italian dominions, assumed the title of King of the - Two Sicilies. He obtained the surname of the Magnanimous, - from his generous conduct towards some conspirators, a list - of whose names he tore to pieces unread, saying, “I will - show these noblemen that I have more concern for their lives - than they have themselves.” The surname of the Learned was - afterwards given to him from the circumstance that, like his - rival René of Anjou, he personally cultivated letters, and - also protected many of the leading learned men of Italy. - Alfonso was fond of strolling about the streets of Naples - unattended, and one day, when he was cautioned respecting - this habit, he replied, “A father who walks abroad in the - midst of his children has no cause for fear.” Whilst - possessed of many remarkable qualities, Alfonso, as Muratori - and other writers have shown, was of an extremely licentious - disposition. That he had no belief in conjugal fidelity is - evidenced by his saying that “to ensure domestic happiness - the husband should be deaf and the wife blind.” He himself - had several mistresses, and lived at variance with his wife, - respecting whom some particulars are given in a note on page - 69. He died in 1458, at the age of seventy-four, bequeathing - his Italian possessions to Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, his - natural son by a Spanish beauty named Margaret de Hijar. It - may be added that Brantôme makes a passing allusion to this - tale of the _Heptameron_ in his _Vies des Dames Galantes_ - (Disc, i.), styling it “a very fine one.”--L. and Ed. - - 3 Meaning that he employed his sovereign authority for the - accomplishment of his amorous desires.--M. - -She vied with her husband in grace and comeliness, and there was great -love between them, until a certain day in Carnival time, when the King -went masked from house to house. All strove to give him the best -welcome they could, but when he came to this gentleman’s house he -was entertained better than anywhere else, what with sweetmeats, -and singers, and music, and, further, the fairest woman that, to his -thinking, he had ever seen. At the end of the feast she sang a song with -her husband in so graceful a fashion that she seemed more beautiful than -ever. - -The King, perceiving so many perfections united in one person, was not -over pleased at the gentle harmony between the husband and wife, and -deliberated how he might destroy it. The chief difficulty he met with -was in the great affection which he observed existed between them, and -on this account he hid his passion in his heart as deeply as he could. -To relieve it in some measure, he gave many entertainments to the lords -and ladies of Naples, and at these the gentleman and his wife were not -forgotten. Now, inasmuch as men willingly believe what they desire, it -seemed to the King that the glances of this lady gave him fair promise -of future happiness, if only she were not restrained by her husband’s -presence. Accordingly, that he might learn whether his surmise was -true, the King intrusted a commission to the husband, and sent him on a -journey to Rome for a fortnight or three weeks. - -As soon as the gentleman was gone, his wife, who had never before been -separated from him, was in great distress; but the King comforted her as -often as he was able, with gentle persuasions and presents, so that -at last she was not only consoled, but well pleased with her husband’s -absence. Before the three weeks were over at the end of which he was to -be home again, she had come to be so deeply in love with the King that -her husband’s return was no less displeasing to her than his departure -had been. Not wishing to be deprived of the King’s society, she agreed -with him that whenever her husband went to his country-house she would -give him notice of it. He might then visit her in safety, and with such -secrecy that her honour, which she regarded more than her conscience, -would not suffer.(4) - - 4 The edition of 1558 is here followed, the MSS. being - rather obscure.--M. - -Having this hope, the lady continued of very cheerful mind, and when her -husband arrived she welcomed him so heartily that, even had he been -told that the King had sought her in his absence, he would have had no -suspicion. In course of time, however, the flame, that is so difficult -of concealment, began to show itself, and the husband, having a strong -inkling of the truth, kept good watch, by which means he was well-nigh -convinced. Nevertheless, as he feared that the man who wronged him -would treat him still worse if he appeared to notice it, he resolved to -dissemble, holding it better to live in trouble than to risk his life -for a woman who had ceased to love him. - -In his vexation of spirit, however, he resolved, if he could, to retort -upon the King, and knowing that women, especially such as are of lofty -and honourable minds, are more moved by resentment than by love, he made -bold one day while speaking with the Queen (5) to tell her that it moved -his pity to see her so little loved by the King. - - 5 This was Mary (daughter of Henry III. of Castile), who was - married to King Alfonso at Valencia on June 29, 1415. Juan - de Mariana, the Spanish historian, records that the ceremony - was celebrated with signal pomp by the schismatical Pope - Benedict XIII. The bride brought her husband a dowry of - 200,000 ducats, and also various territorial possessions. - The marriage, however, was not a happy one, on account of - Alfonso’s licentious disposition, and the Queen is said to - have strangled one of his mistresses, Margaret de Hijar, in - a fit of jealousy. Alfonso, to escape from his wife’s - interference, turned his attention to foreign expeditions. - According to the authors of _L’Art de Vérifier les Dates_, - Queen Mary never once set foot in Italy, and this statement - is borne out by Mariana, who shows that whilst Alfonso was - reigning in Naples his wife governed the kingdom of Aragon, - making war and signing truces and treaties of peace with - Castile. In the _Heptameron_, therefore, Margaret departs - from historical accuracy when she represents the Queen as - residing at Naples with her husband. Moreover, judging by - the date of Mary’s marriage, she could no longer have been - young when Alfonso secured the Neapolitan throne. It is to - be presumed that the Queen of Navarre designedly changed the - date of her story, and that the incidents referred to really - occurred in Spain prior to Alfonso’s departure for Italy. - There is no mention of Mary in her husband’s will, a - remarkable document which is still extant. A letter written - to her by Pope Calixtus II. shows that late in life the King - was desirous of repudiating her to marry an Italian mistress - named Lucretia Alania. The latter repaired to Rome to - negotiate the affair, but the Pope refused to treat with - her, and wrote to Mary saying that she must be prudent, but - that he would not dissolve the marriage, lest God should - punish him for participating in so great a crime. Mary died - a few months after her husband in 1458, and was buried in a - convent at Valencia.--L. and Ed. - -The Queen, who had heard of the affection that existed between the King -and the gentleman’s wife, replied-- - -“I cannot have both honour and pleasure together. I well know that I -have the honour whilst another has the pleasure; and in the same way she -who has the pleasure has not the honour that is mine.” - -Thereupon the gentleman, who understood full well at whom these words -were aimed, replied-- - -“Madam, honour is inborn with you, for your lineage is such that no -title, whether of queen or empress, could be an increase of nobility; -yet your beauty, grace, and virtue are well deserving of pleasure, and -she who robs you of what is yours does a greater wrong to herself than -to you, seeing that for a glory which is turned to her shame, she loses -as much pleasure as you or any lady in the realm could enjoy. I can -truly tell you, madam, that were the King to lay aside his crown, he -would not possess any advantage over me in satisfying a lady; nay, I -am sure that to content one so worthy as yourself he would indeed be -pleased to change his temperament for mine.” - -The Queen laughed and replied-- - -“The King may be of a less vigorous temperament than you, yet the love -he bears me contents me well, and I prefer it to any other.” - -“Madam,” said the gentleman, “if that were so, I should have no pity for -you. I feel sure that you would be well pleased if the like of your own -virtuous love were found in the King’s heart; but God has withheld this -from you in order that, not finding what you desire in your husband, you -may not make him your god on earth.” - -“I confess to you,” said the Queen, “that the love I bear him is so -great that the like could not be found in any other heart but mine.” - -“Pardon me, madam,” said the gentleman; “you have not fathomed the love -of every heart. I will be so bold as to tell you that you are loved by -one whose love is so great and measureless that your own is as nothing -beside it. The more he perceives that the King’s love fails you, the -more does his own wax and increase, in such wise that, were it your -pleasure, you might be recompensed for all you have lost.” - -The Queen began to perceive, both from these words and from the -gentleman’s countenance, that what he said came from the depth of his -heart. She remembered also that for a long time he had so zealously -sought to do her service that he had fallen into sadness. She had -hitherto deemed this to be on account of his wife, but now she was -firmly of belief that it was for love of herself. Moreover, the very -quality of love, which compels itself to be recognised when it is -unfeigned, made her feel certain of what had been hidden from every one. -As she looked at the gentleman, who was far more worthy of being loved -than her husband, she reflected that he was forsaken by his wife, as -she herself was by the King; and then, beset by vexation and jealousy -against her husband, as well as moved by the love of the gentleman, she -began with sighs and tearful eyes to say-- - -“Ah me! shall revenge prevail with me where love has been of no avail?” - -The gentleman, who understood what these words meant, replied-- - -“Vengeance, madam, is sweet when in place of slaying an enemy it gives -life to a true lover.(6) Methinks it is time that truth should cause you -to abandon the foolish love you bear to one who loves you not, and that -a just and reasonable love should banish fear, which cannot dwell in a -noble and virtuous heart. Come, madam, let us set aside the greatness -of your station and consider that, of all men and women in the world, we -are the most deceived, betrayed, and bemocked by those whom we have most -truly loved. Let us avenge ourselves, madam, not so much to requite them -in the way they deserve as to satisfy that love which, for my own part, -I cannot continue to endure and live. And I think that, unless your -heart be harder than flint or diamond, you cannot but feel some spark -from the fires which only increase the more I seek to conceal them. If -pity for me, who am dying of love for you, does not move you to love -me, at least pity for yourself should do so. You are so perfect that you -deserve to win the heart of every honourable man in the world, yet you -are contemned and forsaken by him for whose sake you have scorned all -others.” - - 6 The above sentence being omitted in the MS. followed in - this edition, it has been supplied from MS. No. 1520 in the - Bibliothèque Nationale.--L. - -On hearing these words the Queen was so greatly moved that, for fear -of showing in her countenance the trouble of her mind, she took the -gentleman’s arm and went forth into a garden that was close to her -apartment. There she walked to and fro for a long time without being -able to say a word to him. The gentleman saw that she was half won, and -when they were at the end of the path, where none could see them, he -made a very full declaration of the love which he had so long hidden -from her. They found that they were of one mind in the matter, and -enacted (7) the vengeance which they were no longer able to forego. -Moreover, they there agreed that whenever the husband went into the -country, and the King left the castle to visit the wife in the town, the -gentleman should always return and come to the castle to see the Queen. -Thus, the deceivers being themselves deceived, all four would share in -the pleasures that two of them had thought to keep to themselves. - - 7 This expression has allusion to the mysteries or religious - plays so frequently performed in the fifteenth and sixteenth - centuries. The Mystery of Vengeance, which depicted the - misfortunes which fell upon those who had taken part in the - crucifixion of Jesus Christ, such as Pontius Pilate, &c, and - ended by the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, properly - came after the Mysteries of the Passion and the - Resurrection.--L. - -When the agreement had been made, the Queen returned to her apartment -and the gentleman to his house, both being so well pleased that they had -forgotten all their former troubles. The jealousy they had previously -felt at the King’s visits to the lady was now changed to desire, so that -the gentleman went oftener than usual to his house in the country, which -was only half a league distant. As soon as the King was advised of his -departure, he never failed to go and see the lady; and the gentleman, -when night was come, betook himself to the castle to the Queen, where -he did duty as the King’s lieutenant, and so secretly that none ever -discovered it. - -This manner of life lasted for a long time; but as the King was a person -of public condition, he could not conceal his love sufficiently well to -prevent it from coming at length to the knowledge of every one; and -all honourable people felt great pity for the gentleman, though divers -malicious youths were wont to deride him by making horns at him behind -his back. But he knew of their derision, and it gave him great pleasure, -so that he came to think as highly of his horns as of the King’s crown. - -One day, however, the King and the gentleman’s wife, noticing a stag’s -head that was set up in the gentleman’s house, could not refrain in his -presence from laughing and saying that the head was suited to the house. -Soon afterwards the gentleman, who was no less spirited than the King, -caused the following words to be written over the stag’s head:-- - - - “Io porto le corna, ciascun lo vede, Ma tal le porta che no lo - crede.” (8) - - - 8 “All men may see the horns I’ve got, But one wears horns - and knows it not.” - -When the King came again to the house, he observed these lines newly -written, and inquired their meaning of the gentleman, who said-- - -“If the King’s secret be hidden from the subject, it is not fitting that -the subject’s secret should be revealed to the King. Be content with -knowing that those who wear horns do not always have their caps raised -from their heads. Some horns are so soft that they never uncap one, and -especially are they light to him who thinks he has them not.” - -The King perceived by these words that the gentleman knew something of -his own behaviour, but he never had any suspicion of the love between -him and the Queen; for the more pleased the latter was with the life led -by her husband, the more did she feign to be distressed by it. And so on -either side they lived in this love, until at last old age took them in -hand. - -“Here, ladies, is a story by which you may be guided, for, as I -willingly confess, it shows you that when your husbands give you bucks’ -horns you can give them stags’ horns in return.” - -“I am quite sure, Saffredent,” began Ennasuite laughing, “that if you -still love as ardently as you were formerly wont to do, you would -submit to horns as big as oak-trees if only you might repay them as -you pleased. However, now that your hair is growing grey, it is time to -leave your desires in peace.” - -“Fair lady,” said Saffredent, “though I be robbed of hope by the woman I -love, and of ardour by old age, yet it lies not in my power to weaken -my inclination. Since you have rebuked me for so honourable a desire, -I give you my vote for the telling of the fourth tale, that we may see -whether you can bring forward some example to refute me.” - -During this converse one of the ladies fell to laughing heartily, -knowing that she who took Saffredent’s words to herself was not so loved -by him that he would have suffered horns, shame, or wrong for her sake. -When Saffredent perceived that the lady who laughed understood him, he -was well satisfied and became silent, so that Ennasuite might begin; -which she did as follows-- - -“In order, ladies, that Saffredent and the rest of the company may know -that all ladies are not like the Queen he has spoken of, and that all -foolhardy and venturesome men do not compass their ends, I will tell -you a story in which I will acquaint you with the opinion of a lady who -deemed the vexation of failure in love to be harder of endurance than -death itself. However, I shall give no names, because the events are so -fresh in people’s minds that I should fear to offend some who are near -of kin.” - -[Illustration: 078.jpg Tailpiece] - -[Illustration: 079a.jpg Hurrying to her Mistress’s Assistance] - -[The Princess’s Lady of Honour hurrying to her Mistress’s Assistance] - -[Illustration: 079.jpg Page Image] - - - - -_TALE IV_. - - _A young gentleman sought to discover whether the offer of - an honour-able love would be displeasing to his master’s - sister, a lady of the most illustrious lineage in Flanders, - who had been twice widowed, and was a woman of muck spirit. - Meeting with a reply contrary to his desires, he attempted - to possess her by force; but she resisted him successfully, - and by the advice of her lady of honour, without seeming to - take notice of his designs and efforts, gradually ceased to - regard him with the favour with which she had been wont to - treat him. Thus, by his foolhardy presumption, he lost the - honourable and habitual companionship which, more than - others, he had had with her_.(1) - - 1 This story is historical, and the incidents must have - occurred between 1520 and 1525.--L. - -There lived in the land of Flanders a lady of such high lineage, that -none more illustrious could be found. She was a widow, both her first -and second husbands being dead, and she had no children living. During -her widowhood she lived in retirement with her brother, by whom she was -greatly loved, and who was a very great lord and married to the daughter -of a King. This young Prince was a man much given to pleasure, fond of -hunting, pastimes, and women, as his youth inclined him. He had a -wife, however, who was of a very froward disposition, (2) and found no -pleasure in her husband’s pursuits; wherefore this Lord always took -his sister along with his wife, for she was a most joyous and pleasant -companion, and withal a discreet and honourable woman. - -In this Lord’s household there was a gentleman who, for stature, -comeliness, and grace, surpassed all his fellows. This gentleman, (3) -perceiving that his master’s sister was of merry mood and always ready -for a laugh, was minded to try whether the offer of an honourable love -would be displeasing to her. - - 2 The young prince here mentioned is Francis I., who at - this period was between twenty-five and thirty years old. - The froward wife is Claude of France (daughter of Louis XII. - and Anne of Brittany), whom Francis married in 1514, and who - died of consumption at Blois ten years later, while the King - was on his way to conquer Milan. (See the Memoir of - Margaret, pp. xxvi. and xxxv.)--Ed. - - 3 According to Brantôme, the Lady of Flanders, the young - Prince’s sister, was Queen Margaret herself, and the - gentleman who paid court to her was William Gouffier, Lord - of Bonnivet, of Crevecoeur, Thois, and Querdes, and also a - favourite of Francis I., with whom he was brought up, and by - whom he was employed in all the great enterprises of the - time. Bonnivet became Admiral of France in 1517, and two - years later he was created governor of Dauphiné, and - guardian of the Dauphin’s person. He negotiated the peace - and alliance with Henry VIII., and arranged all the - preliminaries of the interview known as the Field of the - Cloth of Gold (1520). In 1521, says Anselme in his _Histoire - Généalogique_, Bonnivet became governor of Guienne, - commanded the army sent to Navarre, and captured Fontarabia. - In 1524 he was despatched to Italy as lieutenant-general, - and besieged Milan, but was repeatedly repulsed, and finally - fell back on the Ticino. He was killed at Pavia (February - 24, 1525), and was largely responsible for that disastrous - defeat, having urged Francis I. to give battle, contrary to - the advice of the more experienced captains. Bonnivet, as - mentioned by Queen Margaret in this story, had the - reputation of being one of the handsomest men of his time.-- - L. - -He made this offer, but the answer that he received from her was -contrary to his desires. However, although her reply was such as -beseemed a Princess and a woman of true virtue, she readily pardoned his -hardihood for the sake of his comeliness and breeding, and let him know -that she bore him no ill-will for what he had said. But she charged him -never to speak to her after that fashion again; and this he promised, -that he might not lose the pleasure and honour of her conversation. -Nevertheless, as time went on, his love so increased that he forgot the -promise he had made. He did not, however, risk further trial of words, -for he had learned by experience, and much against his will, what -virtuous replies she was able to make. But he reflected that if he could -take her somewhere at a disadvantage, she, being a widow, young, lusty, -and of a lively humour, would perchance take pity on him and on herself. - -To compass his ends, he told his master that excellent hunting was to -be had in the neighbourhood of his house, and that if it pleased him -to repair thither and hunt three or four stags in the month of May, he -could have no finer sport. The Lord granted the gentleman’s request, as -much for the affection he bore him as for the pleasure of the chase, and -repaired to his house, which was as handsome and as fairly ordered as -that of the richest gentleman in the land. - -The Lord and his Lady were lodged on one side of the house, and she whom -the gentleman loved more than himself on the other. Her apartment was -so well arranged, tapestried above and matted below,(4) that it was -impossible to perceive a trap-door which was by the side of her bed, and -which opened into a room beneath, that was occupied by the gentleman’s -mother.(5) - - 4 In most palaces and castles at this period the walls were - covered with tapestry and the floors with matting. This - remark is necessary to enable one to understand Bonnivet’s - stratagem.--D. - - 5 Philippa de Montmorency, second wife of William Gouffier, - Lord of Boissy, who was Bonnivet’s father (Anselme’s - _Histoire Généalogique_, vol. vii. p. 880).--L. - -She being an old lady, somewhat troubled by rheum, and fearful lest the -cough she had should disturb the Princess, made exchange of chambers -with her son. In the evening this old lady was wont to bring sweetmeats -to the Princess for her collation,(6) at which the gentleman was -present; and being greatly beloved by her brother and intimate with him, -he was also suffered to be present when she rose in the morning and when -she retired to bed, on which occasions he always found reasons for an -increase of his affection. - - 6 At that period the collation, as the supper was called, - was served at seven in the evening, shortly before the - curfew.--B. J. - -Thus it came to pass that one evening he made the Princess stay up very -late, until at last, being desirous of sleep, she bade him leave her. -He then went to his own room, and there put on the handsomest and -best-scented shirt he had, and a nightcap so well adorned that nothing -was lacking in it. It seemed, to him, as he looked at himself in his -mirror, that no lady in the world could deny herself to one of his -comeliness and grace. He therefore promised himself a happy issue to -his enterprise, and so lay down on his bed, where in his desire and sure -hope of exchanging it for one more honourable and pleasant, he looked to -make no very long stay. - -As soon as he had dismissed all his attendants he rose to fasten the -door after them; and for a long time he listened to hear whether there -were any sound in the room of the Princess, which was above his own. -When he had made sure that all was quiet, he wished to begin his -pleasant task, and little by little let down the trap-door, which was -so excellently wrought, and so well covered with cloth, that it made not -the least noise. Then he ascended into the room and came to the bedside -of his lady, who was just falling asleep. - -Forthwith, having no regard for the duty that he owed his mistress or -for the house to which she belonged, he got into bed with her, without -entreating her permission or making any kind of ceremony. She felt him -in her arms before she knew that he had entered the room; but being -strong, she freed herself from his grasp, and fell to striking, biting, -and scratching him, demanding the while to know who he was, so that -for fear lest she should call out he sought to stop her mouth with the -bedclothes. But this he found it impossible to do, for when she saw -that he was using all his strength to work her shame she did as much -to baffle him. She further called as loudly as she could to her lady of -honour,(7) who slept in her room; and this old and virtuous woman ran to -her mistress in her nightdress. - - 7 The lady in question was Blanche de Tournon, daughter of - James de Tournon, by Jane de Polignac, and sister of - Cardinal de Tournon, Minister of Francis I. She first - married Raymond d’Agout, Baron of Sault in Provence, who - died in 1503; and secondly James de Chastillon, Chamberlain - to Charles VIII. and Louis XII., killed at the siege of - Ravenna in 1512. Brantôme states, moreover, that she - subsequently married Cardinal John du Bellay. (See Appendix - to the’present volume, C.) In this story, Margaret describes - the Princess of Flanders as having lost two husbands, with - the view of disguising the identity of her heroine. Her own - husband (the Duke of Alençon) was still alive; but Madame de - Chastillon had twice become a widow, and the Queen, who was - well aware of this, designedly ascribed to the Princess the - situation of the lady of honour. This story should be - compared with the poem “Quatre Dames et Quatre - Gentilhommes” in the _Marguerites de la Marguerite_.--F. - -When the gentleman saw that he was discovered, he was so fearful of -being recognised by the lady, that he descended in all haste through his -trap-door; his despair at returning in such an evil plight being no less -than his desire and assurance of a gracious reception had previously -been. He found his mirror and candle on his table,(8) and looking at his -face, all bleeding from the lady’s scratches and bites, whence the blood -was trickling over his fine shirt, which had now more blood than gold -(9) about it, he said-- - - 8 It is not surprising that the mirror should have been - lying on the table. Mirrors were for a long time no larger - than our modern hand-glasses. That of Mary de’ Medici, - offered to her by the Republic of Venice, and now in the - Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre, is extremely small, though - it has an elaborate frame enriched with precious cameos. - Even the mirrors placed by Louis XIV. in the celebrated - Galerie des Glaces at Versailles were no larger than - ordinary window-panes.--M. - - 9 Shirts were then adorned at the collar and in front with - gold-thread embroidery, such as is shown in some of Clouet’s - portraits. In M. de Laborde’s _Comptes des Bâtiments du Roi - au XVIème Siècle_ (vol. ii.) mention is made of “a shirt - with gold work,” “a shirt with white work,” &c.; and also of - two beautiful women’s chemises in Holland linen “richly - worked with gold thread and silk, at the price of six crowns - apiece.”--M. - -“Beauty! now hast thou been rewarded according to thy deserts. By reason -of thy vain promises I attempted an impossible undertaking, and one -that, instead of increasing my happiness, will perchance double my -misfortune. I feel sure that if she knows I made this foolish attempt -contrary to the promise I gave her, I shall lose the honourable and -accustomed companionship which more than any other I have had with her. -And my folly has well deserved this, for if I was to turn my good -looks and grace to any account, I ought not to have hidden them in the -darkness. I should not have sought to take that chaste body by force, -but should have waited in long service and humble patience till love -had conquered her. Without love, all man’s merits and might are of no -avail.” - -Thus he passed the night in tears, regrets, and sorrowings such as I -cannot describe; and in the morning, finding his face greatly torn, he -feigned grievous sickness and to be unable to endure the light, until -the company had left his house. - -The lady, who had come off victorious, knew that there was no man at her -brother’s Court that durst attempt such an enterprise save him who had -had the boldness to declare his love to her. She therefore concluded -that it was indeed her host, and made search through the room with her -lady of honour to discover how he could have entered it. But in this she -failed, whereupon she said to her companion in great anger-- - -“You may be sure that it can have been none other than the lord of this -house, and I will make such report of him to my brother in the morning -that his head shall bear witness to my chastity.” - -Seeing her in such wrath, the lady of honour said to her-- - -“Right glad am I, madam, to find you esteem your honour so highly that, -to exalt it, you would not spare the life of a man who, for the love -he bears you, has put it to this risk. But it often happens that one -lessens what one thinks to increase; wherefore, I pray you, madam, tell -me the truth of the whole matter.” - -When the lady had fully related the business, the lady of honour said to -her-- - -“You assure me that he had nothing from you save only scratches and -blows?” - -“I do assure you that it was so,” said the lady; “and, unless he find a -rare surgeon, I am certain his face will bear the marks tomorrow.” - -“Well, since it is thus, madam,” said the lady of honour, “it seems to -me that you have more reason to thank God than to think of vengeance; -for you may well believe that, since the gentleman had spirit enough -to make such an attempt, his grief at having failed will be harder -of endurance than any death you could award him. If you desire to be -revenged on him, let love and shame do their work; they will torment -him more grievously than could you. And if you would speak out for your -honour’s sake,(10) beware, madam, lest you fall into a mishap like to -his own. - - 10 In Boaistuau’s edition this passage runs: “Let love and - shame do their work, they will know better than you how to - torment him; and do this for your honour’s sake. Beware,” - &c.--L. - -He, instead of obtaining the greatest delight he could imagine, has -encountered the gravest vexation any gentleman could endure. So you, -madam, thinking to exalt your honour, may perchance diminish it. If you -make complaint, you will bring to light what is known to none, for you -may rest assured that the gentleman on his side will never reveal aught -of the matter. And even if my lord, your brother, should do justice -to him at your asking, and the poor gentleman should die, yet would it -everywhere be noised abroad that he had had his will of you, and most -people would say it was unlikely a gentleman would make such an attempt -unless the lady had given him great encouragement. You are young and -fair; you live gaily with all; and there is no one at Court but has seen -the kind treatment you have shown to the gentleman whom you suspect. -Hence every one will believe that if he did this deed it was not without -some fault on your side; and your honour, for which you have never had -to blush, will be freely questioned wherever the story is related.” - -On hearing the excellent reasoning of her lady of honour, the Princess -perceived that she spoke the truth, and that she herself would, with -just cause, be blamed on account of the close friendship which she had -always shown towards the gentleman. Accordingly she inquired of her lady -of honour what she ought to do. - -“Madam,” replied the other, “since you are pleased to receive my -counsels, having regard for the affection whence they spring, it seems -to me you should be glad at heart to think that the most comely and -gallant gentleman I have ever seen was not able, whether by love or by -force, to turn you from the path of true virtue. For this, madam, you -should humble yourself before God, and confess that it was not through -your own merit, for many women who have led straighter lives than you -have been humiliated by men less worthy of love than he. And you should -henceforth be more than ever on your guard against proposals of love; -for many have the second time yielded to dangers which on the first -occasion they were able to avoid. Be mindful, madam, that love is blind, -and that it makes people blind in such wise that the way appears safest -just when it is most slippery. Further, madam, it seems to me that you -should give no sign of what has befallen you, whether to him or to any -one else, and that if he seeks to say anything on the matter, you should -feign not to understand him. In this way you will avoid two dangers, -the one of vain-glory in the victory you have won, and the other of -recalling things so pleasant to the flesh that at mention of them the -chastest can only with difficulty avoid feeling some sparks of the -flame, though they strive their utmost to escape them. (11) - - 11 We here follow MS. No. 1520.--L. - -Besides this, madam, in order that he may not think he has done anything -pleasing in your sight, I am of opinion you should little by little -withdraw the friendship you have been in the habit of showing him. In -this way he will know how much you scorn his rashness, and how great is -your goodness, since, content with the victory that God has given you, -you seek no further vengeance upon him. And may God give you grace, -madam, to continue in the virtue He has placed in your heart; and, -knowing that all good things come from Him, may you love and serve Him -better than before.” - -The Princess determined to abide by the advice of her lady of honour, -and then fell asleep with joy as great as was the sadness of her waking -lover. - -On the morrow, the lord, her brother, wishing to depart, inquired for -his host, and was told that he was too ill to bear the light or to hear -any one speak. The Prince was greatly astonished at this, and wished to -go and see the gentleman; however, learning that he was asleep, he would -not awake him, but left the house without bidding him farewell. He took -with him his wife and sister, and the latter, hearing the excuses sent -by the gentleman, who would not see the Prince or any of the company -before their departure, felt convinced that it was indeed he who had so -tormented her, and that he durst not let the marks which she had left -upon his face be seen. And although his master frequently sent for him, -he did not return to Court until he was quite healed of all his wounds, -save only one--namely, that which love and vexation had dealt to his -heart. - -When he did return, and found himself in presence of his victorious -foe, he could not but blush; and such was his confusion, that he who had -formerly been the boldest of all the company, was often wholly abashed -before her. Accordingly, being now quite certain that her suspicion was -true, she estranged herself from him little by little, though not so -adroitly that he did not perceive it; but he durst not give any sign -for fear of meeting with something still worse, and so he kept his love -concealed, patiently enduring the disgrace he had so well deserved.(12) - - 12 This story is referred to by Brantôme, both in his _Vies - des Homines illustres et grands Capitaines français_, and in - his _Vies des Dames galantes_. See Appendix to the - present volume (C. ). - -“This, ladies, is a story which should be a warning to those who would -grasp at what does not belong to them, and which, further, should -strengthen the hearts of ladies, since it shows the virtue of this young -Princess, and the good sense of her lady of honour. If the like fortune -should befall any among you, the remedy has now been pointed out.” - -“It seems to me,” said Hircan, “that the tall gentleman of whom you have -told us was so lacking in spirit as to be unworthy of being remembered. -With such an opportunity as that, he ought not to have suffered any one, -old or young, to baffle him in his enterprise. It must be said, also, -that his heart was not entirely filled with love, seeing that fear of -death and shame found place within it.” - -“And what,” replied Nomerfide, “could the poor gentleman have done with -two women against him?” - -“He ought to have killed the old one,” said Hircan, “and when the young -one found herself without assistance she would have been already half -subdued.” - -“To have killed her!” said Nomerfide. “Then you would turn a lover into -a murderer? Since such is your opinion, it would indeed be a fearful -thing to fall into your hands.” - -“If I had gone so far,” said Hircan, “I should have held it -dishonourable not to achieve my purpose.” - -Then said Geburon-- - -“You think it strange that a Princess, bred in all honour, should prove -difficult of capture to one man. You should then be much more astonished -at a poor woman who escaped out of the hands of two.” - -“Geburon,” said Ennasuite, “I give my vote to you to tell the fifth -tale, for I think you know something concerning this poor woman that -will not be displeasing to us.” - -“Since you have chosen me,” said Geburon, “I will tell you a story which -I know to be true from having made inquiries concerning it on the spot. -By this story you will see that womanly sense and virtue are not in the -hearts and heads of Princesses alone, nor love and cunning in such as -are most often deemed to possess them.” - -[Illustration: 094.jpg Tailpiece] - -[Illustration: 095a.jpg The Boatwoman of Coulon outwitting the Friars] - -[The Boatwoman of Coulon outwitting the Friars] - -[Illustration: 095.jpg Page Image] - - - - -_TALE V._ - - _Two Grey Friars, when crossing the river at the haven of - Coulon, sought to ravish the boatwoman who was taking them - over. She, however, being virtuous and Clever, so beguiled - them with words that, whilst promising to grant their - request, she deceived them and handed them over to justice. - They were then delivered up to their warden to receive such - punishment as they deserved_. - -At the haven of Coulon,(1) near Nyort, there lived a boatwoman who, day -or night, did nothing but convey passengers across the ferry. - - 1 The village of Coulon, in Poitou (department of the Deux- - Sèvres), lies within seven miles of Niort, on the Niortaise - Sevre, which at this point is extremely wide.--L. - -Now it chanced that two Grey Friars from Nyort were crossing the river -alone with her, and as the passage is one of the longest in France, they -began to make love to her, that she might not feel dull by the way. She -returned them the answer that was due; but they, being neither fatigued -by their journeying, nor cooled by the water, nor put to shame by her -refusal, determined to take her by force, and, if she clamoured, to -throw her into the river. She, however, was as virtuous and clever as -they were gross and wicked, and said to them-- - -“I am not so ill-disposed as I seem to be, but I pray you grant me two -requests. You shall then see that I am more ready to give than you are -to ask.” - -The friars swore to her by their good St. Francis that she could ask -nothing that they would not grant in order to have what they desired of -her. - -“First of all,” she said, “I require you both to promise on oath that -you will inform no man living of this matter.” This they promised right -willingly. - -“Then,” she continued, “I would have you take your pleasure with me one -after the other, for it would be too great a shame for me to have to do -with one in presence of the other. Consider which of you will have me -first.” - -They deemed her request a very reasonable one, and the younger friar -yielded the first place to the elder. Then, as they were drawing near a -little island, she said to the younger one-- - -“Good father, say your prayers here until I have taken your companion to -another island. Then, if he praises me when he comes back, we will leave -him here, and go away in turn together.” - -The younger friar leapt out on to the island to await the return of his -comrade, whom the boat-woman took away with her to another island. -When they had reached the bank she said to him, pretending the while to -fasten her boat to a tree-- - -“Look, my friend, and see where we can place ourselves.” - -The good father stepped on to the island to seek for a convenient spot, -but no sooner did she see him on land than she struck her foot against -the tree and went off with her boat into the open stream, leaving both -the good fathers to their deserts, and crying out to them as loudly as -she could-- - -“Wait now, sirs, till the angel of God comes to console you; for you -shall have nought that could please you from me to-day.” - -The two poor monks, perceiving that they had been deceived, knelt down -at the water’s edge and besought her not to put them to such shame; and -they promised that they would ask nothing of her if she would of her -goodness take them to the haven. But, still rowing away, she said to -them-- - -“I should be doubly foolish if, after escaping out of your hands, I were -to put myself into them again.” - -When she had come to the village, she went to call her husband and the -ministers of justice that they might go and take these fierce wolves, -from whose fangs she had by the grace of God escaped. They set out -accompanied by many people, for there was no one, big or little, but -wished to share in the pleasure of this chase. - -When the poor brethren saw such a large company approaching, they hid -themselves each in his island, even as Adam did when he perceived his -nakedness in the presence of God.(2) Shame set their sin clearly before -them, and the fear of punishment made them tremble so that they were -half dead. Nevertheless, they were taken prisoners amid the mockings and -hootings of men and women. - -Some said, “These good fathers preach chastity to us and then rob our -wives of theirs.” (3) - - 2 See _Genesis_ iii. 8-10. - - 3 The editions of 1558 and 1560 here contain this - additional phrase: “They do not dare to touch money with - bare hands, and yet they willingly finger the thighs of our - wives, which are more dangerous.”--L. - -Others said, “They are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed -appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones and -uncleanness.” (4) Then another voice cried, “By their fruits shall ye -know what manner of trees they are.” (5) - -You may be sure that all the passages in the Gospel condemning -hypocrites were brought forward against the unhappy prisoners, who were, -however, rescued and delivered by their Warden,(6) who came in all haste -to claim them, assuring the ministers of justice that he would visit -them with a greater punishment than laymen would venture to inflict, and -that they should make reparation by saying as many masses and prayers as -might be required. The judge granted the Warden’s request and gave the -prisoners up to him; and the Warden, who was an upright man, so dealt -with them that they never afterwards crossed a river without making the -sign of the cross and recommending themselves to God.(7) - - 4 St. Matthew xxiii. 27. - - 5 “For every tree is known by his own fruit.”--St. Luke vi. - 45. - - 6 The Father Superior of the Grey Friars was called the - Warden.--B.J. - - 7 Henry Etienne quotes this story in his _Apologie pour - Hérodote_, and praises the Queen for thus denouncing the - evil practices of the friars.--F. - -“I pray you, ladies, consider, since this poor boatwoman had the wit to -deceive two such evil men, what should be done by those who have read -of and witnessed so many fair examples, and who have had the goodness of -virtuous ladies ever before their eyes? Indeed, the virtue of well-bred -women is not so much to be called virtue as habit. It is in the women -who know nothing, who hear scarcely two good sermons during the whole -year, who have no leisure to think of aught save the gaining of their -miserable livelihood, and who nevertheless jealously guard their -chastity, hard-pressed as they may be (8)--it is in such women as these -that one discovers the virtue that is natural to the heart. Where -man’s wit and might are smallest, there the Spirit of God performs the -greatest work. And unhappy indeed is the lady who keeps not close ward -over the treasure which brings her so much honour if it be well guarded, -and so much shame if it be neglected.” - - 8 Boaistuau’s edition of 1558 here contains the following - interpolation: “As should be done by those who, having their - lives provided for, have no occupation save that of studying - Holy Writ, listening to sermons and preaching, and exerting - themselves to act virtuously in all things.”--L. - -“It seems to me, Geburon,” said Longarine, “that there is no great -virtue in refusing a Grey Friar, and that it would rather be impossible -to love one.” - -“Longarine,” replied Geburon, “they who are not accustomed to such -lovers as yours do by no means despise the Grey Friars, for the latter -are as handsome and as strong as we are, and they are readier and -fresher also, for we are worn-out with our service. Moreover, they talk -like angels and are as importunate as the devil, so that such women as -have never seen other robes than their coarse drugget ones,(9) are truly -virtuous when they escape out of their hands.” - - 9 Meaning who have never seen gallants in gay apparel.--Ed. - -“In faith,” said Nomerfide, in a loud voice, “you may say what you -like, but I would rather be thrown into the river than lie with a Grey -Friar.’’ - -“So you can swim well?” said Oisille, laughing. - -Nomerfide took this question in bad part, for she thought that she -was esteemed by Oisille less highly than she desired. Accordingly she -answered in anger-- - -“There are some who have refused more agreeable men than Grey Friars -without blowing a trumpet about it.” - -Oisille laughed to see her so wrathful, and said to her-- - -“Still less do they beat a drum about what they have done and granted.” - -“I see,” said Geburon, “that Nomerfide wishes to speak. I therefore give -her my vote that she may relieve her heart in telling us some excellent -story.” - -“What has just been said,” replied Nomerfide, “touches me so little -that it affords me neither pleasure nor pain. However, since I have your -vote, I pray you listen to me whilst I show that, although one woman -used cunning for a good purpose, others have been crafty for evil’s -sake. Since we have sworn to tell the truth I will not hide it, for just -as the boatwoman’s virtue brings no honour to other women unless -they follow her example, so the vice of another cannot disgrace her. -Wherefore, listen.” - -[Illustration: 102.jpg Tailpiece] - -[Illustration: 103a.jpg The Wife’s Ruse to secure the Escape of her -Lover] - -[The Wife’s Ruse to secure the Escape of her Lover] - -[Illustration: 103.jpg Page Image] - - - - -_TALE VI_. - - _An old one-eyed valet in the service of the Duke of Alençon - being advised that his wife was in love with a young man, - desired to know the truth, and feigned to go away into the - country for a few days. He returned, however, so suddenly - that his wife, on whom he was keeping watch, perceived how - matters stood, and whilst thinking to deceive her, he was - himself deceived_. - -There was in the service of Charles, last Duke of Alençon, an old valet -who had lost an eye, and who was married to a wife much younger than -himself. Now, since his master and mistress liked him as well as any man -of his condition that was in their service, he was not able to visit his -wife as often as he could have wished. Owing to this she so far forgot -her honour and conscience as to fall in love with a young man, and the -affair being at last noised abroad, the husband heard of it. He could -not believe it, however, on account of the many notable tokens of love -that were shown him by his wife. - -Nevertheless, he one day determined to put the matter to the test, and -to take revenge, if he were able, on the woman who had put him to such -shame. For this purpose he pretended to go away to a place a short -distance off for the space of two or three days. - -As soon as he was gone, his wife sent for her lover, but he had not been -with her for half-an-hour when the husband arrived and knocked loudly at -the door. The wife well knew who it was and told her lover, who was so -greatly confounded that he would fain have been in his mother’s womb, -and cursed both his mistress and the love that had brought him into such -peril. However, she bade him fear nothing, for she would devise a means -to get him away without harm or shame to him, and she told him to dress -himself as quickly as he could. All this time the husband was knocking -at the door and calling to his wife at the top of his voice; but she -feigned not to recognise him, and cried out to the people of the house-- - -“Why do you not get up and silence those who are making such a clamour -at the door? Is this an hour to come to the houses of honest folk? If my -husband were here he would soon make them desist.” - -On hearing his wife’s voice the husband called to her as loudly as he -could-- - -“Wife, open the door. Are you going to keep me waiting here till -morning?” - -Then, when she saw that her lover was ready to set forth, she opened the -door. - -“Oh, husband!” she began, “how glad I am that you are come. I have just -had a wonderful dream, and was so pleased that I never before knew such -delight, for it seemed to me that you had recovered the sight of your -eye.” (1) - - 1 This is taken from No. xvi. of the _Cent Nouvelles - Nouvelles_, in which the wife exclaims: “Verily, at the very - moment when you knocked, my lord, I was greatly occupied - with a dream about you.”--“And what was it, sweetheart?” - asks the husband.--“By my faith, my lord,” replies the wife, - “it really seemed to me that you were come back, that you - were speaking to me, and that you saw as clearly with one - eye as with the other.”--Ed. - -Then, embracing and kissing him, she took him by the head and covering -his good eye with one hand, she asked him-- - -“Do you not see better than you did before?” - -At that moment, whilst he saw not a whit, she made her lover sally -forth. The husband immediately suspected the trick, and said to her-- - -“‘Fore God, wife, I will keep watch on you no more, for in thinking to -deceive you, I have myself met with the cunningest deception that ever -was devised. May God mend you, for it is beyond the power of man to put -a stop to the maliciousness of a woman, unless by killing her outright. -However, since the fair treatment I have accorded you has availed -nothing for your amendment, perchance the scorn I shall henceforward -hold you in will serve as a punishment.” - -So saying he went away, leaving his wife in great distress. Nevertheless -by the intercession of his friends and her own excuses and tears, he was -persuaded to return to her again.(2) - - 2 Although Queen Margaret ascribes the foregoing adventure - to one of the officers of her husband’s household, and - declares that the narrative is quite true, the same subject - had been dealt with by most of the old story-tellers prior - to her time, and Deslongchamps points out the same incidents - even in the early Hindoo fables (see the _Pantcha Tantra_, - book I., fable vi.). A similar tale is to be found in the - _Gesta Romanorum_ (cap. cxxii.), in the _fabliaux_ collected - by Legrand d’Aussy (vol. iv., “De la mauvaise femme”), in P. - Alphonse’s _Disciplina Clericalis_ (fab. vii.), in the - _Decameron_ (day vii., story vi.), and in the _Cent - Nouvelles Nouvelles_ (story xvi.). Imitations are also to be - found in Bandello (part i., story xxiii.), Malespini (story - xliv.), Sansovino (_Cento Novelle_), Sabadino (_Novelle_), - Etienne (_Apologiepour Hérodote_, ch. xv. ), De la Monnoye - (vol. ii.), D’Ouville (_Contes_, vol. ii.), &c.--L. & B. J. - -“By this tale, ladies, you may see how quick and crafty a woman is in -escaping from danger. And if her wit be quick to discover the means of -concealing a bad deed, it would, in my belief, be yet more subtle in -avoiding evil or in doing good; for I have always heard it said that wit -to do well is ever the stronger.” - -“You may talk of your cunning as much as you please,” said Hircan, “but -my opinion is that had the same fortune befallen you, you could not have -concealed the truth.” - -“I had as lief you deemed me the most foolish woman on earth,” she -replied. - -“I do not say that,” answered Hircan, “but I think you more likely to be -confounded by slander than to devise some cunning means to silence it.” - -“You think,” said Nomerfide, “that every one is like you, who would use -one slander for the patching of another; but there is danger lest the -patch impair what it patches and the foundation be so overladen that -all be destroyed. However, if you think that the subtlety, of which all -believe you to be fully possessed, is greater than that found in women, -I yield place to you to tell the seventh story; and, if you bring -yourself forward as the hero, I doubt not that we shall hear wickedness -enough.” - -“I am not here,” replied Hircan, “to make myself out worse than I am; -there are some who do that rather more than is to my liking.” - -So saying he looked at his wife, who quickly said-- - -“Do not fear to tell the truth on my account. I can more easily bear -to hear you relate your crafty tricks than to see them played before my -eyes, though none of them could lessen the love I bear you.” - -“For that reason,” replied Hircan, “I make no complaint of all the false -opinions you have had of me. And so, since we understand each other, -there will be more security for the future. Yet I am not so foolish as -to relate a story of myself, the truth of which might be vexatious -to you. I will tell you one of a gentleman who was among my dearest -friends.” - -[Illustration: 108.jpg Tailpiece] - -[Illustration: 109.jpg The Merchant transferring his Caresses from the -Daughter to the Mother] - -[The Merchant transferring his Caresses from the Daughter to the Mother] - -[Illustration: 110.jpg Page Image] - - - - -_TALE VII_. - - _By the craft and subtlety of a merchant an old woman was - deceived and the honour of her daughter saved_. - -In the city of Paris there lived a merchant who was in love with a young -girl of his neighbourhood, or, to speak more truly, she was more in -love with him than he with her. For the show he made to her of love -and devotion was but to conceal a loftier and more honourable passion. -However, she suffered herself to be deceived, and loved him so much that -she had quite forgotten the way to refuse. - -After the merchant had long taken trouble to go where he could see her, -he at last made her come whithersoever it pleased himself. Her mother -discovered this, and being a very virtuous woman, she forbade her -daughter ever to speak to the merchant on pain of being sent to a -nunnery. But the girl, whose love for the merchant was greater than her -fear of her mother, went after him more than ever. - -It happened one day, when she was in a closet all alone, the merchant -came in to her, and finding himself in a place convenient for the -purpose, fell to conversing with her as privily as was possible. But -a maid-servant, who had seen him go in, ran and told the mother, who -betook herself thither in great wrath. When the girl heard her coming, -she said, weeping, to the merchant--“Alas! sweetheart, the love that I -bear you will now cost me dear. Here comes my mother, who will know for -certain what she has always feared and suspected.” - -The merchant, who was not a bit confused by this accident, straightway -left the girl and went to meet the mother. Stretching out his arms, he -hugged her with all his might, and, with the same ardour with which he -had begun to entertain the daughter, threw the poor old woman on to a -small bed. She was so taken aback at being thus treated that she could -find nothing to say but--“What do you want? Are you dreaming?” - -For all that he ceased not to press her as closely as if she had been -the fairest maiden in the world, and had she not cried out so loudly -that her serving-men and women came to her aid, she would have gone by -the same road as she feared her daughter was treading. - -However, the servants dragged the poor old woman by main force out of -the merchant’s arms, and she never knew for what reason he had thus -used her. Meanwhile, her daughter took refuge in a house hard by where -a wedding was going on. Since then she and the merchant have ofttimes -laughed together at the expense of the old woman, who was never any the -wiser. - -“By this story, ladies, you may see how, by the subtlety of a man, an -old woman was deceived and the honour of a young one saved. Any one -who would give the names, or had seen the merchant’s face and the -consternation of the old woman, would have a very tender conscience -to hold from laughing. It is sufficient for me to prove to you by this -story that a man’s wit is as prompt and as helpful at a pinch as a -woman’s, and thus to show you, ladies, that you need not fear to fall -into men’s hands. If your own wit should fail you, you will find theirs -prepared to shield your honour.” - -“In truth, Hircan,” said Longarine, “I grant that the tale is a very -pleasant one and the wit great, but the example is not such as maids -should follow. I readily believe there are some whom you would fain have -approve it, but you are not so foolish as to wish that your wife, or -her whose honour you set higher than her pleasure,(1) should play such -a game. I believe there is none who would watch them more closely or -shield them more readily than you.” - - 1 M. Frank, adopting the generally received opinion that - Hircan is King Henry of Navarre, believes this to be an - allusion to one of the King’s sisters--Ann, who married the - Count of Estrac, or Isabel, who married M. de Rohan--but it - is more likely that Henry’s daughter, Jane d’Albret, is the - person referred to.--Ed. - -“By my conscience,” said Hircan, “if she whom you mention had done such -a thing, and I knew nothing about it, I should think none the less of -her. For all I know, some one may have played as good a trick on me; -however, knowing nothing, I am unconcerned.” - -At this Parlamente could not refrain from saying-- - -“A wicked man cannot but be suspicious; happy are those who give no -occasion for suspicion.” - -“I have never seen a great fire from which there came no smoke,” said -Longarine, “but I have often seen smoke where there was no fire. The -wicked are as suspicious when there is no mischief as when there is.” - -“Truly, Longarine,” Hircan forthwith rejoined, “you have spoken so well -in support of the honour of ladies wrongfully suspected, that I give you -my vote to tell the eighth tale. I hope, however, that you will not make -us weep, as Madame Oisille did, by too much praise of virtuous women.” - -At this Longarine laughed heartily, and thus began:--“You want me to -make you laugh, as is my wont, but it shall not be at women’s expense. -I will show you, however, how easy it is to deceive them when they are -inclined to be jealous and esteem themselves clever enough to deceive -their husbands.” - -[Illustration: 113.jpg Tailpiece] - - - - -APPENDIX. - - - - -A. (Prologue, Page 31.) - -The dedication with which Anthony Le Maçon prefaces his translation of -Boccaccio contains several curious passages. In it Margaret is styled -“the most high and most illustrious Princess Margaret of France, only -sister of the King, Queen of Navarre, Duchess of Alençon and of Berry;” - while the author describes himself as “Master Anthoine Le Maçon, -Councillor of the King, Receiver General of his finances in Burgundy, -and very humble secretary to this Queen.” He then proceeds to say:-- - -“You remember, my lady, the time when you made a stay of four or five -months in Paris, during which you commanded me, seeing that I had -freshly arrived from Florence, where I had sojourned during an entire -year, to read to you certain stories of the _Decameron_ of Boccaccio, -after which it pleased you to command me to translate the whole book -into our French language, assuring me that it would be found beautiful -and entertaining. I then made you reply that I felt my powers were -too weak to undertake such a work.... My principal and most reasonable -excuse was the knowledge that I had of myself, being a native of the -land of Dauphiné, where the maternal language is too far removed from -good French.... However, it did not please you to accept any of my -excuses, and you showed me that it was not fitting that the Tuscans -should be so mistaken as to believe that their Boccaccio could not be -rendered in our language as well as it is in theirs, ours having become -so rich and so copious since the accession of the King, your brother, to -the crown, that nothing has ever been written in any language that could -not be expressed in this; and thus your will still was that I should -translate it (the _Decameron_) when I had the leisure to do so. Seeing -this and desiring, throughout my life, to do, if I can, even more than -is possible to obey you, I began some time afterwards to translate one -of the said stories, then two, then three, and finally to the number of -ten or twelve, the best that I could choose, which I afterwards showed -as much to people of the Tuscan nation as to people of ours, who all -made me believe that the stories were, if not perfectly, at least very -faithfully translated. Wherefore, allowing myself to be thus pleasantly -deceived, if deceit there was, I have since set myself to begin the -translation at one end and to finish it at the other....” - -This dedicatory preface is followed by an epistle, written in Italian by -Emilio Ferretti, and dated from Lyons, May I, 1545; and by a notice to -the reader signed by Etienne Rosset, the bookseller, who in the King’s -license, dated from St. Germain-en-Laye, Nov. 2, 1544, is described as -“Rosset called the Mower, bookseller, residing in Paris, on the bridge -of St. Michael, at the sign of the White Rose.” The first edition of Le -Maçon’s translation (1545) was in folio; the subsequent ones of 1548, -1551, and 1553 being in octavo. It should be remembered that Le Maçon’s -was by no means the first French version of the _Decameron_. Laurent du -Premier-Faict had already rendered Boccaccio’s masterpiece into French -in the reign of Charles VI., but unfortunately his translation, although -of a pleasing naïveté, was not at all correct, having been made from -a Latin version of the original. Manuscript copies of Laurent’s -translation were to be found in the royal and most of the princely -libraries of the fifteenth century.--Ed. - - - - -B. (Tale I., Page 50.) - -The letters of remission which at the instance of Henry VIII. were -granted to Michael de St. Aignan in respect of the murder of James du -Mesnil are preserved in the National Archives of France (Register -J. 234, No. 191), and after the usual preamble, recite the culprit’s -petition in these terms:-- - -“Whereas it appears from the prayer of Michael de St. Aignan, lord of -the said place, (1) that heretofore he for a long time lived and resided -in the town of Alençon in honour and good repute; but, to the detriment -of his prosperity, life, and conduct there were divers evil-minded and -envious persons who by sinister, cunning, and hidden means persecuted -him with all the evils, wiles, and deceits that it is possible to -conceive, albeit the said suppliant had never caused them displeasure, -injury, or detriment; among others, one named James Dumesnil, a young -man, to whom the said suppliant had procured all the pleasure and -advantages that were in his power, and whom he had customarily admitted -to his house, thinking that the said Dumesnil was his loyal friend, and -charging his wife and his servants to treat him when he came as though -he were his brother; by which means St. Aignan hoped to induce the said -Dumesnil to espouse one of his relatives. - - 1 This was in all probability the village of St. Aignan on - the Sarthe, between Moulins-la-Marche and Bazoches, and - about twenty miles from Alençon. The personage here - mentioned should not be confounded with Emery de - Beauvilliers, whom Francis I. created Count of St. Aignan - (on the Cher), and whose descendants, many of whom were - distinguished generals and diplomatists, became dukes of the - same place.--Ed. - -“But Dumesnil ill-requited the aforesaid good services and courtesies, -and rendering evil for good, as is the practice of iniquity, endeavoured -to and did cause an estrangement between the said St. Aignan and -his wife, who had always lived together in good, great, and perfect -affection. And the better to effect his purpose he (Dumesnil) gave the -said wife to understand, among other things, that St. Aignan bore her -no affection; that he daily desired her death; that she was mistaken in -trusting him; and other evil things not fitting to be repeated, which -the wife withstood, enjoining Dumesnil not to use such language again, -as should he do so she would repeat it to her husband; but Dumesnil, -persevering, on divers occasions when St. Aignan had absented himself, -gave the wife of the latter to understand that he (St. Aignan) was dead, -devising proofs thereof and conjectures, and thinking that by this means -he would win her favour and countenance. But she still resisted him, -which seeing, the said Dumesnil gave her to understand that St. Aignan -would often absent himself, and that she would be happier if she had a -husband who remained with her. And plotting to compass the death of -the said St. Aignan, Dumesnil gave her to understand that if she would -consent to the death of her husband he would marry her; and, in fact, -he promised to marry her. And whereas she still refused to consent, the -said Dumesnil found a means to gain a servant woman of the house, -who, St. Aignan being absent and his wife in bed, opened the door to -Dumesnil, who compelled the said wife to let him lie with her. And -thenceforward Dumesnil made divers presents to the servant woman, so -that she should poison the said suppliant; and she consented to his -face; but at Easter confessed the matter to St. Aignan, entreating his -forgiveness, and also saying and declaring it to the neighbours. And -the said Dumesnil, knowing that he would incur blame and reproach if the -matter were brought forward, seized and abducted the said servant woman -in all diligence, and took her away from the town, whereby a scandal was -occasioned. - -“Moreover, it would appear that the said Dumesnil had been found several -times by night watching the gardens and the door in view of slaying St. -Aignan, as is notorious in Alençon, by virtue of the admission of the -said Dumesnil himself. Whereupon St. Aignan, seeing his wife thus made -the subject of scandal by Dumesnil, enjoined him to abstain from coming -to his house to see his wife, and to consider the outrage and injury he -had already inflicted upon him; declaring moreover that he could endure -no more. To which Dumesnil refused to listen, declaring that he would -frequent the house in spite of every one; albeit, in doing so, he might -come by his death. Thereupon St. Aignan, being acquainted with the -evil obstinacy of Dumesnil and desirous of avoiding greater misfortune, -departed from the town of Alençon, and went to reside in the town of -Argentan, ten leagues distant, whither he took his wife, thinking that -Dumesnil would abstain from coming. Withal he did not abstain, but came -several times to the said town of Argentan, and frequented his (St. -Aignan’s) wife; whereby the people of Argentan were scandalised. And the -said St. Aignan endeavoured to prevent him from coming, and employed -the nurse of his child to remonstrate with Dumesnil, but the latter -persevered, saying and declaring that he would kill St. Aignan, and -would still go to Argentan, albeit it might cause his death. Insomuch -that the said Dumesnil, on the eighth day of this month, departed from -Alençon between two and three o’clock in the morning, a suspicious hour, -having disguised himself and assumed attire unsuited to his calling, -which is that of the law; wearing a Bearnese cloak,(2) a jacket of white -woollen stuff underneath, all torn into strips, with a feathered cap -upon his head, and having his face covered. In this wise he arrived at -the said town of Argentan, accompanied by two young men, and lodged -in the faubourgs at the sign of Notre Dame, and remained there -clandestinely from noon till about eleven o’clock in the evening, when -he asked the host for the key of the backdoor, so that he might go out -on his private affairs, not wishing to be recognised. - -“At the said suspicious hour, with his sword at his side,(3) and dressed -and accoutred in the said garments, he started from his lodging with one -of the said young men. - - 2 See _ante_, p. 24, note 8. - - 3 The French word is _basion_, which in the sixteenth - century was often used to imply a sword; arquebuses and - musketoons being termed _basions à feu_ by way of - distinction. Moreover, it is expressly stated farther on - that Dumesnil had a sword.--Ed. - -“In this wise Dumesnil reached the house of St. Aignan, which he found a -means of entering, and gained a closet up above, near the room where the -said St. Aignan and his wife slept. St. Aignan was without thought -of this, inasmuch as he was ignorant of the enterprise of the said -Dumesnil, being in the living room with one Master Thomas Guérin, who -had come upon business. Now, as St. Aignan was disposing himself to go -to bed, he told one of his servants, named Colas, to bring him his _cas_ -(4) and the servant having occasion to go up into a closet in which -St. Aignan’s wife was sleeping, and in which the said Dumesnil was -concealed, the latter, fearing that he might be recognised, suddenly -came out with a drawn sword in his hand; whereupon the said Colas cried: -‘Help! There is a robber!’ And he declared to St. Aignan that he had -seen a strange man who did not seem to be there for any good purpose; -whereupon St. Aignan said to him: ‘One must find out who it is. Is there -occasion for any one to come here at this hour?’ Thereupon Colas went -after the said personage, whom he found in a little alley near the -courtyard behind the house; and the said personage, having suddenly -perceived Colas, endeavoured to strike him on the body with his weapon; -but Colas withstood him and gave him a few blows,(5) for which reason he -cried out ‘Help! Murder!’ Thereupon St. Aignan arrived, having a sword -in his hand; and after him came the said Guérin. St. Aignan, who as yet -did not know Dumesnil on account of his disguise, and also because it -was wonderfully dark, found him calling out: ‘Murder! Confession!’ -By which cry the said St. Aignan knew him, and was greatly perplexed, -astonished, and angered, at seeing his enemy at such an hour in his -house, he having been found there, with a weapon, in the closet. And the -said St. Aignan recalling to memory the trouble and worry that Dumesnil -had caused him, dealt him two or three thrusts in hot anger, and then -said to him: ‘Hey! Wretch that thou art, what hast brought thee here? -Wert thou not content with the wrong thou didst me in coming here -previously? I never did thee an ill office.’ Whereupon the said Dumesnil -said: ‘It is true, I have too grievously offended you, and am too -wicked; I entreat your pardon.’ And thereupon he fell to the ground as -if dead; which seeing, the said St. Aignan, realising the misfortune -that had happened, said not a word, but recommended himself to God and -withdrew into his room, where he found his wife in bed, she having heard -nothing. - - 4 The _en cas_ was a kind of light supper provided _in case_ - one felt hungry at night-time. Most elaborate _en cas_, - consisting of several dishes, were frequently provided for - the kings of France.--Ed. - - 5 In the story Margaret asserts that it was Thomas Guérin - who attacked Dumesnil.--D. - -“On the night of the said dispute, and a little later, St. Aignan -went to see what the said Dumesnil was doing, and finding him in the -courtyard dead, he helped to carry him into the stable, being too -greatly incensed to act otherwise. And upon the said Colas asking him -what should be done with the body, St. Aignan paid no heed to this -question, because he was not master of himself; but merely said to Colas -that he might do as he thought fit, and that the body might be interred -in consecrated ground or placed in the street. After which St. Aignan -withdrew into his room and slept with his wife, who had her maids with -her. And on the morrow this same Colas declared to St. Aignan that he -had taken the said body to be buried, so as to avoid a scandal. To all -of which things St. Aignan paid no heed, but on the morrow sent to fetch -the two young men in the service of the said Dumesnil, who were at his -lodging, and had the horses removed from the said lodging, and gave -orders to one of the young men to take them back. - -“On account of all which occurrences he (St. Aignan) absented himself, -&c, &c, but humbly entreating us, &c, &c. Wherefore we now give to the -Bailiffs of Chartres and Caen, or to their Lieutenants, and to each of -them severally and to all, &c, &c. Given at Châtelherault, in the month -of July, the year of Grace, one thousand five hundred and twenty-six, -and the twelfth of our reign. - -“_Signed: By the King on the report of the Council_: - -“De Nogent.”_Visa: contentor_. - -“De Nogent.” - - It will be seen that the foregoing petition contains various - contradictory statements. The closet, for instance, is at - first described as being near the room in which St. Aignan - and his wife slept, then it is asserted that the wife slept - in the closet, but ultimately the husband is shown joining - his wife in the bed-chamber, where she had heard nothing. - The character of the narrative is proof of its falsity, and - Margaret’s account of the affair may readily be accepted as - the more correct one.--Ed. - - - - -C. (Tale IV., Page 85.) - -_Les Vies des Dames galantes_ contains the following passage bearing -upon Margaret’s 4th Tale. See Lalanne’s edition of Brantôme’s Works, -vol. ix. p. 678 _et sec_.:-- - -“I have heard a lady of great and ancient rank relate that the late -Cardinal du Bellay, whilst a Bishop and Cardinal, married Madame de -Chastillon, and died married; and this lady said it in conversing with -Monsieur de Manne, a Provençal of the house of Seulal, and Bishop of -Frejus, who had attended the said Cardinal during fifteen years at -the Court of Rome, and had been one of his private protonotaries. The -conversation turning upon the said Cardinal, this lady asked Monsieur -de Manne if he (the Cardinal) had ever said and confessed to him that he -had been married. It was Monsieur de Manne who was astonished at such a -question. He is still alive and can say if I am telling an untruth, for -I was there. He replied that he had never heard the matter spoken of -either to himself or to others. ‘Then it is I who inform you of it,’ -said she, ‘for nothing could be more true but that he was married, and -died really married to Madame de Chastillon.’ - -“I assure you that I laughed heartily, contemplating the astonished -countenance of Monsieur de Manne, who was most conscientious and -religious, and thought that he had known all the secrets of his late -master; but he was as ignorant as a Gibuan as regards that one, which -was indeed scandalous on account of the holy rank which he (Cardinal du -Bellay) had held. - -“This Madame de Chastillon was the widow of the late Monsieur de -Chastillon, of whom it was said that he governed the little King Charles -VIII., with Bourdillon and Bonneval, who governed the royal blood. He -died at Ferrara, where he had been taken to have his wounds dressed, -having been wounded at the siege of Ravenna. - -“This lady became a widow when very young and beautiful, and on account -of her being sensible and virtuous she was elected as lady of honour to -the late Queen of Navarre. It was she who gave that fine advice to that -lady and great princess, which is recorded in the hundred stories of the -said Queen--the story of herself and a gentleman who had slipped into -her bed during the night by a trap-door at the bedside, and who wished -to enjoy her, but only obtained by it some fine scratches upon his -handsome face. She (the Queen) wishing to complain to her brother, -Madame de Chastillon made her that fine remonstrance which will be seen -in the story, and gave her that beautiful advice which is one of the -finest, most judicious, and most fitting that could be given to avoid -scandal: did it come even from a first president of (the Parliament of) -Paris. Yet it well showed that the lady was quite as artful and shrewd -in such secret matters as she was sensible and prudent; and for this -reason there is no need for doubt as to whether she kept her affair with -the Cardinal a secret. My grandmother, Madame la Sénéchale of Poitou, -had her place after her death, by election of King Francis who chose and -elected her, and sent to fetch her even in her house, and gave her -with his own hand to the Queen his sister, for he knew her to be a very -well-advised and very virtuous lady, but not so shrewd, or artful, or -ready-witted in such matters as her predecessor, or married either a -second time. - -“And if you wish to know to whom the story applies, it is to the Queen -of Navarre herself and Admiral de Bonnivet, as I hold it from my late -grandmother; and yet it seems to me that the said Queen should not have -concealed her name, since the other could not obtain aught from her -chastity, but went off in confusion, and since she herself had meant -to divulge the matter had it not been for the fine and sensible -remonstrance which was made to her by the said lady of honour, Madame de -Chastillon. Whoever has read the story will find that she was a lady of -honour, and I think that the Cardinal, her said husband, who was one of -the best speakers and most learned, eloquent, wise, and shrewd men of -his time, must have instilled into her this science of speaking and -remonstrating so well.” - -Brantôme also refers to the story in question in his _Vies des Hommes -illustres et grands Capitaines français_ (vol. ii. p. 162), wherein he -says:-- - -“There is a tale in the stories of the Queen of Navarre, which speaks of -a lord, the favourite of a king, whom he invited with all his court to -one of his houses, where he made a trap-door in his room conducting to -the bedside of a great princess, in view of lying with her, as he did, -but, as the story relates, he obtained only scratches from her.” - -END OF VOL. I. - -LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY OF ENGLISH BIBLIOPHILISTS - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. -(of V.), by Margaret, Queen Of Navarre - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALES OF THE HEPTAMERON *** - -***** This file should be named 17701-8.txt or 17701-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/7/0/17701/ - -Produced by David Widger - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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