Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/144

Rh was resolved that her daughter should not fail the King in his need. Indignant that her daughter, hers, should shrink from so honourable a sacrifice, she was determined to subdue that uncompromising and stubborn spirit; indignant, and with the despotic anger of the worshipper whose idol is outraged.

But Jeanne was no silent martyr. She was a decided, brusque, and valiant nature, very French in type. Under the exterior of a charming and espiégleespiègle [sic] brunette she concealed an immense resolution. The day before her betrothal to the German Duke she called the three principal officers of her household into her presence and bade them witness her protestation. She then read aloud:

"I, Jeanne of Navarre, continuing the protest I have made and in which I persist, say and declare and protest again before these present, that the marriage to be made between me and the Duke of Cleves is against my will; that I never have consented to it and never will consent; and that, whatever I may do or say hereafter wherefrom one may argue my consent, it will be done by force against my will and desire and through fear of the King, as of the King my father, and of the Queen my mother, who has threatened me, and has had me whipt by my governess, the wife of the Bailiff of Caen; and several times my governess has exhorted me, by the command of the Queen my mother, threatening me that should I not do, in the matter of this marriage, all that the King of France requires, and should I not consent, I shall be so flogged and so maltreated that I shall die of it, and that I shall be the cause of the ruin and destruction of my father, my mother, and all their house; and all this has put me in such fear—especially the destruction of my