Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/18

Rh delicate chivalry of his character won her passionate approval. At this age she must have been a beautiful girl, with aquiline features, in which the latent coarseness was as yet undeveloped, dark, with an ardent Italian air. She knew a little Latin, and was fond of quoting it; she was well and widely read in French, and could speak several modern languages; there were few better instructed princesses in Europe. Her manners at this time were gentle and submissive, for she had voluntarily bowed herself under the yoke of an impassioned reverence. The violent ambition of her later years was still unguessed and latent in her soul.

Charles and his bride spent the first year of their marriage in the Castle of Angoulême, and there, in the following spring, their eldest child was born. In the Journal in which, later on, Louisa noted the great events of her life, she thus records the date:—

"My daughter Margaret was born in the year 1492, the eleventh day of April, at two o'clock in the morning, that is to say, the tenth day, fourteen hours and ten minutes, counting after the fashion of the astronomers."

As the little girl grew out of babyhood, people noticed that her mother's aquiline features were softened in her face by the look and smile of her gentle father, and that in her character his delicate and benevolent nature qualified the love of learning and capacity for devotion which her mother gave her. More intense than he, more refined and unworldly than Louisa, the little Margaret displayed a singular and beautiful personality. The young Countess was very proud of her and, almost from her cradle, began to cultivate the sensitive intelligence of the child. But, while Margaret was still little more than a baby, a