Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/230

215

King was dead; but life still went on full of pressing needs and sordid complications. Margaret's belief had proved fallacious; her brother was dead and she was still alive. Nay, rich as was the past in dear and solemn memories, she had little time to brood on it. Never had the present called her with so urgent, vulgar, and clamorous a voice. For, not only her brother was dead, but the King her patron; with him her royal pensions, her influence, her authority, died too. And even in the first flush of her grief Margaret had to set her mind to saving what she could from the general disaster.

The death of her brother left her with scarcely sufficient money to cover her yearly expenses; for, though her revenues were large, her generosity was larger. Spending little on herself—very little, as we shall see—she had always chosen to give away the surplus, not to save it. Hitherto there had seemed small need for thrift, for Francis had always shared abundantly with his Mignonne. Now he was dead, and Margaret's expenses were greater than at any