Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/127

112 Henry of Navarre, in his quality of Governor of Guyenne, raised an army and led it to the southern frontier. Margaret's letters to Montmorency (very frequent at this moment) are full of allusions to her young husband, to his valour, his troops. We see in her mind the happy contrast that she makes between this eager service of the brave young King of Navarre and the cowardice and failure of the husband of her youth. Margaret, we feel, is no less anxious than her brother to wipe out, on a fresh field, the disgraces of Pavia.

"I have had news," she writes to Montmorency, "of your soldier, the King of Navarre. He is, I fancy, on the march, for he has determined to depart without going to Bayonne—for by this time he has the letters in which I told him that the Emperor is at hand, and that you await him at the camp of Avignon. I am sure he will not fail you there. I pray you, my son, that you will hold him as a brother, for I am sure that you will find his love so good and firm that you will not repent you for having taken him to your heart."

The preparation for the campaign went on with enthusiasm. The army in Piedmont met with brilliant success. The camp on the frontier was impatient for battle.

"My Lord," writes Margaret to the King, "I came yesterday evening to this place of Moufrin (near Avignon), where is the division of the King of Navarre, which I have seen in battle array. I will say nothing of the men-at-arms; but there are few soldiers better mounted than our light horse. You will be pleased with the Gascons; and would to God the Emperor would try to cross the Rhone while I am here for,