Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/244

Rh So Margaret passed out of life: others took up her tasks and filled her place. But her humane and gentle influence was gone for ever. In the brief and violent history of the House of Valois no other Egeria shines.

She is dead, and all her works are dead, or only live a little dimly on the shelves of historians and bibliophiles. But oblivion will never cover her memory. Rather, as the sphere of history widens, will the appreciation of her rare influence increase. Without her, the noblest part of the Renaissance in France must have perished at the Inquisition stakes. She made learning possible; and secured for a time a relative freedom of thought. She taught respect for life in an age which only respected opinions. Her strong national feeling was for years a bulwark against the invasion of Spanish superstition. She showed that compassion is larger than conviction; charity more honourable than faith. Her character was not great. It lacked decision, strength, moral judgment, and the splendour of mental purity. But her impassioned sweetness made it beautiful and rare. Her mercy and magnanimity were the saving of a nation. For this, and not for her novels or her poems, she will be remembered.