Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/78

Rh in its grief. At least so much is clear; Charles, who at twenty-five years old, was the most important personage of his age, did not fall in love with this pale and tearful widow of three-and-thirty, whom he now encountered for the first time. We hear no more of a marriage between him and Margaret.

Meanwhile the joy was great between the brother and the sister. For the moment Francis appeared out of danger. But three days after, on the 25th September, the sinking of death appeared to overpower him. Montmorency sent a hurried message to the Emperor, who received with chill resignation the news that his scheming was outplanned by Death. "God has given him to me," he exclaimed, "and God has taken him away!" Yet he knew that if Francis died the battle of Pavia had been bought too dearly.

Meanwhile Margaret, in agony and exaltation, knelt praying by her brother's side. Francis lay quite insensible upon his bed. But none the less his sister had an altar dressed in his cell, and sent for the Archbishop and his priests to say a mass. At the moment of the elevation of the Host, the Archbishop turned and spoke to the dying King. Francis opened his eyes and asked for the Holy Sacrament. That evening the abscess broke, and immediate danger was over.

The King was still very weak; still feverish and needing better air and greater comforts than his prison could supply. Margaret at once began negotiations for a peace. But now she found the Emperor did not remember the words that had so often been quoted to her. He seemed in no haste to set his good brother free.

Margaret was in great distress. Even for her