DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0213
THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE
171
children and, however capricious he might be, he was a
tender father and knew the nature of grief. “ My darling,1’
he wrote, “ if Fortune had not tried our resolute patience
through all these years, I should say she was right to make
fresh proof of her power. But having learned by sure
experience that what is mine is yours, she should also have
considered that what is yours is mine. And so, since you bore
the pains of Death when my—your—first children died.... it
is for me now to bear your pains as if they were my own.
You must not, in troth, like a rebel, forsake the fight with
the Common Foe, but remember that this makes the third
of yours, and the last of mine, whom God has called unto
His blessed company. They have gained with little labour
what we desire with infinite travail. Forget your sad tears
in obedience to God .... and accept from yourself the clear
and pure counsel which, in like case, you once gave to me.”
She was destined to perform that office again for' him six
years later, when the young Dauphin died of a sudden and
mysterious illness : poisoned, it was credulously said, by the
orders of the Emperor. Amboise, the scene of their own
childhood, had been the Dauphin’s birth-place. “I can no
longer believe that Amboise is Amboise”—writes the sister
to the brother—” It is now only the source of infinite
memory and pain.”
Soon after her loss, the King and Queen left France and
went to live in the province of Bearn, in their kingdom of
Navarre. They took up their abode in the Chateaux of
Nerac and of Pau, where the most important part of Mar-
garet’s life was spent. Here passed the first two years of
little Jeanne’s childhood. All was going smoothly and happi-
171
children and, however capricious he might be, he was a
tender father and knew the nature of grief. “ My darling,1’
he wrote, “ if Fortune had not tried our resolute patience
through all these years, I should say she was right to make
fresh proof of her power. But having learned by sure
experience that what is mine is yours, she should also have
considered that what is yours is mine. And so, since you bore
the pains of Death when my—your—first children died.... it
is for me now to bear your pains as if they were my own.
You must not, in troth, like a rebel, forsake the fight with
the Common Foe, but remember that this makes the third
of yours, and the last of mine, whom God has called unto
His blessed company. They have gained with little labour
what we desire with infinite travail. Forget your sad tears
in obedience to God .... and accept from yourself the clear
and pure counsel which, in like case, you once gave to me.”
She was destined to perform that office again for' him six
years later, when the young Dauphin died of a sudden and
mysterious illness : poisoned, it was credulously said, by the
orders of the Emperor. Amboise, the scene of their own
childhood, had been the Dauphin’s birth-place. “I can no
longer believe that Amboise is Amboise”—writes the sister
to the brother—” It is now only the source of infinite
memory and pain.”
Soon after her loss, the King and Queen left France and
went to live in the province of Bearn, in their kingdom of
Navarre. They took up their abode in the Chateaux of
Nerac and of Pau, where the most important part of Mar-
garet’s life was spent. Here passed the first two years of
little Jeanne’s childhood. All was going smoothly and happi-