DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0317
THE DU BELLAYS AND RABELAIS 273
no sooner dismounted than he desireth to show me every-
thing he has on the estate, and everything he meaneth to
do. The Lady Anne hath made me a present of a hunting
suit, a hat, a horn and a hound. This that I write, Mon-
seigneur, is not to try and persuade you that I am so likely
a man as to make all ladies love me; but to let you know
how quickly groweth the friendship of this King and our
King; for all that the Lady Anne doth, she doth it by
commandment of her liege Lord, his Majesty of England.”
No junketings, however, caused him to lose sight of the
work he had in hand : “ I know as a fact and on good
authority,” he wrote, “ that the greatest pleasure the King
can give to the King, his brother, and to Madam Anne,
is to write bidding me invite him to bring her with him
to Calais, to be seen and feasted by everyone. But they
must not come without the company of ladies, since good
cheer is ever the better for their presence.” This was wily
of him, as he knew the ladies of France had refused to meet
Anne Boleyn. He added a more daring suggestion: the
presence of the French King’s sister would, he said, be held
a sine qua non, although he was sworn not to reveal the
source of his knowledge. Margaret solved the problem by
feigning illness; Anne Boleyn by never stirring from the
town of Calais, where she duly arrived. The fetes—planned
for the fields round the town—thus became impossible; the
Kings met; and Henry and Anne returned home with their
train.
Jean du Bellay only went on working the harder at
cementing the English alliance. He found it no easy task
to make two such slippery monarchs keep their word—the
18
no sooner dismounted than he desireth to show me every-
thing he has on the estate, and everything he meaneth to
do. The Lady Anne hath made me a present of a hunting
suit, a hat, a horn and a hound. This that I write, Mon-
seigneur, is not to try and persuade you that I am so likely
a man as to make all ladies love me; but to let you know
how quickly groweth the friendship of this King and our
King; for all that the Lady Anne doth, she doth it by
commandment of her liege Lord, his Majesty of England.”
No junketings, however, caused him to lose sight of the
work he had in hand : “ I know as a fact and on good
authority,” he wrote, “ that the greatest pleasure the King
can give to the King, his brother, and to Madam Anne,
is to write bidding me invite him to bring her with him
to Calais, to be seen and feasted by everyone. But they
must not come without the company of ladies, since good
cheer is ever the better for their presence.” This was wily
of him, as he knew the ladies of France had refused to meet
Anne Boleyn. He added a more daring suggestion: the
presence of the French King’s sister would, he said, be held
a sine qua non, although he was sworn not to reveal the
source of his knowledge. Margaret solved the problem by
feigning illness; Anne Boleyn by never stirring from the
town of Calais, where she duly arrived. The fetes—planned
for the fields round the town—thus became impossible; the
Kings met; and Henry and Anne returned home with their
train.
Jean du Bellay only went on working the harder at
cementing the English alliance. He found it no easy task
to make two such slippery monarchs keep their word—the
18