Page:The Queens of England.djvu/196

 164 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. justice and humanity, and more than once she had the satisfac- tion of rescuing her willful husband from circumstances of extreme peril, into which his own rashness had led him. The Duchess of Brittany, notwithstanding the splendor of her high station, enjoyed but little real happiness. In the year 1387, the first year of her married life, she had to mourn the tragical end of her father, Charles of Navarre, who, hated and unpitied by the world, was still beloved by his affectionate daughter, though she was* unable to respect and honor him. This prince expired under peculiarly horrible circumstances. In the hope of restoring the use of his limbs which were paralyzed by disease, he caused his body to be encased in ban- dages previously dipped in spirits of wine and sulphur. The careless attendants one night desiring to sever the thread with which these bandages had been sewn, applied a candle, which, igniting the spirits of wine, burnt the king so frightfully that he died a few days afterward. Much afflicted as she was at this melancholy catastrophe the Duchess Joanna had yet other griefs. In the following years she was deprived of two children, who died within a short time of each other, and severely did she lament their loss. She was at this time living in solitary life in the castle of Ermine, while her husband was at Paris pleading his cause against the con- stable, Oliver de Clisson. But Joanna was soon after cheered by the news of the duke's reconciliation with the King of France, and she was also consoled for her losses by the satisfac- tion of giving birth to a son and heir to the house of Montfort ; and subsequently she became the mother of a numerous family. From the period of the birth of her eldest son, Joanna be- gan to exercise her influence in public affairs, and she grad- ually became experienced in the government of the duchy. War again broke out between her husband and De Clisson, and again they were cited to appear before the King of France, but John "le Valiant" refused to obey the summons. The Duke de Berri was dismissed to Nantes to assemble the chiefs of the nobles of Brittany ; while ambassadors were sent to the duke, who, in great anger, commanded their arrest. Joanna, instantly perceiving the great danger to which this base step would expose the duchy, immediately hurried with her little son and her second child, but an infant, into the pres- ence of the duke, whom she besought with tears and earnest entreaties, not to permit his unconscious children to suffer the