Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/226

Rh that for weeks together the delicate, declining Queen, could not leave her special suite of rooms in the great castle of Pau. The deep snows retarded the arrival of the couriers from Paris, for whose coming Margaret watched and feared and hoped all day and all night. The close, pent-up life, the long suspense, told heavily on her fragile constitution, and deepened her consumptive taint.

With the breaking of the frosts, Margaret went from Pau to the convent of Tusson, in the Angoumais, in order to pass the season of Lent in retreat among the nuns. Her constant and growing anxiety haunted her there no less than in the world. The fasts and vigils of Lent weakened her yet more, and rendered her ever visionary brain peculiarly subject to dreams and hallucinations. Early in April she dreamed one night that the King came and stood by her bedside. His face was pale and ghastly; and in a thrilling anguished voice he called upon her twice: "My sister! my sister!" Margaret awoke in dismay. She rose and forthwith despatched her messengers to Rochefort, where she believed the King to be. During the anxious days of waiting that ensued, she withdrew from the placid company of the nuns, whose peace was a reproach to her feverish heart. Day after day, and yet no answer came. Day after day; for, in truth, the King was dead.

No one dared to tell his sister; they knew her passionate affection and feared the stroke. But the suspense all but cost the poor Queen her reason. A week after her messengers had gone, and when the King had been a fortnight dead, the same vision appeared to her in sleep. This time Margaret awoke almost distracted. She sent for her attendants and