Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/54

Rh inheritance on the death of Suzanne. Thus, in her cruel anger, she hoped to denude the Constable of the whole of the heritage of his dead wife. Such a hatred as hers, altering the whole course of Europe for many years, deserves to be explained. Louisa was a violent hater; nor was this the first shock that her private spite had given to the public weal of France. She had already hated the House of Foix: Madame de Chateaubriand, the King's almost royal mistress, and her brothers Lautrec and Lescun, the Viceroys at Milan. In order to secure the disgrace of Lantrec, Louisa had intercepted the money which the King had finally despatched to pay the Swiss troops in the Milanese. Louisa embezzled the money, and the mercenaries revolted. Lautrec was disgraced, and France lost Milan.

And now Madame directed her hate against a greater rival with larger interests at stake. The Constable Bourbon was, after the King, the most important personage of France. He possessed, through his marriage with Suzanne of Bourbon-Beaujeu, no less than seven French provinces. When his eldest child was born the King stood sponsor; and the guests were served at table by five hundred gentlemen in velvet. No prince in Europe displayed a more stately magnificence than he. He was, indeed, a striking and picturesque figure, this half-Italian soldier, only five years older than the King, but looking more resolved, maturer, with his tragic Southern aspect, set mouth, and great melancholy eyes. He was no less brave than Francis, and a far better leader; for, indeed, good soldiership was his natural inheritance from his Bourbon ancestors, who had all been generals, and his Gonzaga forebears, all Condottieri. He was the cousin