Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/158

Rh the preface to the Heptameron, "so great a delight was taken by the most Christian King, Francis, first of the name, by my Lord Dauphin, Madame the Dauphiness, and Madame Marguerite, that if Boccaccio, from the place where he is, could have heard their voices, he would have been brought to life again by the praise of such as they."

Soon, however, Margaret was compelled to leave her brother. Peace was arranged with Charles V. on what appeared to be favourable terms. Queen Leonor began to recover from her fever, and was able to return to Court. Notwithstanding the anger of the Dauphin at the sudden termination of a war which he had hoped to lead to a more glorious end, Francis I. was manifestly content. By deserting his ally, Soliman of Turkey, by revoking his protection from the Lutherans, by giving his promise to Charles V. to crush out heresy and subdue the Turks—Francis had secured a splendid inheritance for his favourite son. He had sold his soul for an abundant mess of pottage.

Margaret, the champion of the Huguenots, should have shrunk from an advantage secured by so infamous a desertion. But no; she was carried away by that fatal idolatry for her brother, which deprived her of judgment when he was at the bar. Her brother was pleased, was better, was almost happy, and Margaret exults over the peace between "le lys et la pomme ronde."

As soon as the peace of Crépy was arranged, the King left Paris to hunt in his forests at Romorantin, impelled by that nervous restlessness which hurried him continually from place to place; and Margaret returned to her Duchy of Alençon, to set her affairs in order there. She was glad to leave her brother in a