Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (1886).djvu/122

Rh Royal princes. And it was barely four months since Francis had sworn that he would rather die in prison than subject her to such disgrace! The King was to be the King again, but no longer Ogier, no longer Roland. A note of satire pierces through the songs which the people made about their prince in his hard captivity:—

There is no condition he will not grant for freedom's sake.

It was not only gold, not only the Royal children that Charles demanded; he required the province of Burgundy. And those that surmised the contents of the peace could not know that the King in prison had signed before witnesses two secret protests, whereby he declared that a prisoner under lock and key is in no wise constrained to keep a forced obligation.