Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/93

78 d'Angoulême," she writes, "took it with a very bad fever; and then M. d'Orléans, but he was not so ill; and then Madame Madeleine, but very slightly; and lastly, for company's sake, M. le Dauphin, without either pain or fever. And now they all are quite cured and very well. And M. le Dauphin is doing wonders at his lessons, mixing with his schooling a hundred thousand other occupations; and there is no more question of flying into passions, but rather of all the virtues. M. d'Orléans (Henry) is nailed to his books, and says he will be good; but M. d'Angoulême (Charles) knows more than the others, and does things which seem rather prophecies than childish play; so much so, my lord, that you would be astonished to hear them. The little Margot is like me: she will not be ill. But here everyone tells me of her wonderful grace; and she becomes prettier than ever was Mademoiselle d'Angoulême."

As February passed away and the children recovered, Margaret had to prepare them for the change to come—for the price the two elder boys, Francis and Henry, were to pay for their father's freedom. She must have spoken to them of the ardent and chivalric Queen, the betrothed of their father, whose wards they were to be. On the 17th of March the exchange was made. The two children were taken to Bayonne, and thence to the river Bidassoa, between Fontarabia and Andail, near Saint Jean de Luz. They and their attendants embarked from the banks of Navarre at the same moment as the boat of Francis left the Spanish header. One moment's glimpse in passing, and the two melancholy children (one eight years old, one seven) were in a hostile country, in the hands of the Constable of Castile. One happy, careless