Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/100

Rh and honourable, and all the knights were sprightly and joyous: whether in designing this Abbey of Thelema, Rabelais had in mind the little Court of Nérac, we cannot here decide. Let us only say that to the Queen of Navarre, Esprit abstraict ravy et estatic, Rabelais dedicated the third book of his Pantagruel; that he was protected by her friends the three Du Bellays; that he was intimate with Clément Marot, with Étienne Dolet, with Desperriers and Calvin, and others of the persecuted scholars whom she protected. And let us own that much such a Court as Thelema was held at the castles of Nérac and of Pau; a Court of scholars, of poets and thinkers, who fled thither from the stake or from the dreadful convent in pace; a court of charming women, at once good and gay; and of men as light-hearted as the King, and as courteous as the Queen.

Henry and Margaret, early estranged at heart, had one great interest in common: the desire to improve this desolate princedom of Béarn. Henry, at his own cost, drained and cultivated the sandy Landes, planted them with vineyards and cork-oak woods, and imported labourers from Saintonge. Henry built a great cloth-mill, and taught his subjects how to weave the fine Pyrennean wool they sheared from their mountain herds. Henry established courts of justice throughout his kingdom, and reformed the ruin and disorder into which the whole land had fallen. And Margaret rebuilt the castles of Nérac and of Pau, and adorned them with the famous library that she bequeathed to Fontainebleau, founded hospitals, and orphanages throughout her kingdom. Margaret succoured the poor, herself visiting the sick and consoling them. Finally, she made of this nook of Southern France