Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/103

88 and her lover M. de Rohan. To Margaret Francis applied whenever the necessities of the court required some difficult alliance, some rebellious young people to persuade, some ruthless parent to soften. She was a kindly match-maker; and though she preached implicit obedience to authority, she would not interfere between lovers: "Between ourselves," she says, "we poor homely women understand not how to spoil such honest love." She was, indeed, the natural protectress of young people: her niece Madeleine, in love with the King of Scotland, betrothed elsewhere; Isabeau de Rohan, falling from misfortune to misfortune, till she becomes the poorest gentlewoman in France; Margaret of France, wan with grief for the death of her sister, the Scottish Queen; Mademoiselle d'Estouteville refusing to marry a man who does not love her; the orphan Charlotte de Laval: all these young girls, and many others, whose names and characters grow familiar to us through the letters of Margaret, are sheltered, as it were, under the folds of her mantle, as the virgins of Saint Ursula in the pictures at Cologne.

In the refined, artificial society of Nérac, old forms of gallantry survived and new ones were invented. "For with regard to gallantry," said Brantôme, "this Queen knew more about it than about her daily bread." The romantic, mystical temper of Margaret, which found no pleasure in the actual looseness of the times, was strongly attracted to the semi-chivalrous rites which were the dangerous shadow of that laxity. The court of Nérac was a veritable Puy d'amour. The heart no less than the soul was regent there; and though Margaret had no lovers, she had more brothers by alliance, sons by alliance, platonic enthusiasts, and adoring protégés than any other queen in Europe:—