Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/90

Rh was nearly a year since he had breathed freely, and now he was safe in France. He rested there two days, whence he wrote to his chancellor to announce his escape; and then he made his way to the court of Louisa. He knew the Regent well; for on his mother's death, in 1519, the young King of Navarre had been sent to the French court, where Francis had shown great favour to the spirited and clever lad. There, too, he must often have seen Duchess Margaret, then a charming young married woman, the centre of a brilliant court, whom he should now meet in her widowhood, mournful and sick at heart.

But if he found her no longer the star of a court, he found her the heroine of Europe. Her embassy, though seemingly fruitless, had at least established her devotion and her address. Charles V. declared he had not thought it possible a woman could speak so well. Young Henry d'Albret, impetuous, and always ready to fall in love, gave the reins to his admiration for this brave and tender woman. They had many adventures to tell each other; many an instance of the Emperor's perfidious coldness. Margaret, who ever since her journey into Spain hated Charles with a vigorous hatred strange in that kindly heart, found ample sympathy in Henry d'Albret, to whom the Emperor was not merely an ungenerous captor, but the usurper of his kingdom.

Another occasion for friendship lay in the tolerance with which the young King viewed the new ideas of reform. Béarn had never been a narrowly Catholic state; Margaret, often sorely grieved by the cruel