Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/239

224 :For pins, nine livres, 15 sols.
 * Six wooden combs, each £0 $36.
 * For gold and silver for her needlework, Three marks.
 * For a gold chain to be given away, £175.
 * For the deed of a loan to M. de Rohan, £4.
 * For New Year's gifts to the King of Navarre, £30.

That is the slender amount. Margaret had done with the world and with worldly gear. She had a lodging built for her in the convent at Tusson, and went there in 1549 to spend her Lent in retreat; but the life suited her so well, she stayed the summer there. Her leaning towards reform was no obstacle in her love for this conventual routine. It was because she loved the Church that she had wished to chasten it. She had no desire, as we have said, to establish a sect outside the Roman pale; only to keep a spirit of national life in the Church of France, to keep it French, while admitting the authority of Rome. So Margaret lived in peace of conscience at Tusson. Not, alas! in peace of mind. Her growing weakness sorely distressed her; and when her physicians told her that the end was near, she wept, and found their saying a very bitter word. Her attendants reminded her of the glory of the saints in Paradise. The Queen was not consoled.

"All that is true," she said. "But we stay so long a time under the earth before our coming there." And then she began to weep and ask why must she die; she was not yet so old but that she might well live a few years more. They could not appease her horror of death, her curiosity concerning the fate of the soul. One of the dearest of her maids of honour falling ill