DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0414
366 THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
of God Who has wisely ordained this law for Man, only
making him mortal to deliver him from mortality by the
everlasting life of the soul. And he who does not pay this
debt to God gaily is most miserable, both in life and in
death. For that man is a bad soldier who follows his Cap-
tain reluctantly. My mourning is deeper for you than for
myself. She loved you with such a love that she would
have spared nothing for your good.... but as all must
suffer death .... (which we dread too much as a perilous
cliff in our voyage), I shall obey the great Pilot, even though
I am swallowed up in the hell of my anguish; and I shall
let myself drift with the wind which it pleaseth Him to
send me from heaven.” 1
Henry of Navarre had an eloquent tongue and eloquent
thoughts. He probably in time persuaded himself that he
had been a good husband. He had had his tender moments,
and it was easy to dwell upon them. There is still a book
in the Library of the Arsenal in Paris, a book of Christian
instruction for children, which contains a miniature of them
both. Henry is in a garden holding a flower towards Margaret,
who is seen behind a grating, robed in cloth of gold, with a
black head-dress and a veil. Below the Navarre arms stands
written—“ I have found a precious Marguerite and gathered
it into my inmost heart.” The portrait is not quite un-
truthful—the grating between them. It is thus, at all
events, that we like to remember them; thus that, after her
death, he did remember her. 2
1 Olhagaray: Histoire de Bearn et de Foix.
2 His own was not till 1555, when his daughter Jeanne
succeeded him.
of God Who has wisely ordained this law for Man, only
making him mortal to deliver him from mortality by the
everlasting life of the soul. And he who does not pay this
debt to God gaily is most miserable, both in life and in
death. For that man is a bad soldier who follows his Cap-
tain reluctantly. My mourning is deeper for you than for
myself. She loved you with such a love that she would
have spared nothing for your good.... but as all must
suffer death .... (which we dread too much as a perilous
cliff in our voyage), I shall obey the great Pilot, even though
I am swallowed up in the hell of my anguish; and I shall
let myself drift with the wind which it pleaseth Him to
send me from heaven.” 1
Henry of Navarre had an eloquent tongue and eloquent
thoughts. He probably in time persuaded himself that he
had been a good husband. He had had his tender moments,
and it was easy to dwell upon them. There is still a book
in the Library of the Arsenal in Paris, a book of Christian
instruction for children, which contains a miniature of them
both. Henry is in a garden holding a flower towards Margaret,
who is seen behind a grating, robed in cloth of gold, with a
black head-dress and a veil. Below the Navarre arms stands
written—“ I have found a precious Marguerite and gathered
it into my inmost heart.” The portrait is not quite un-
truthful—the grating between them. It is thus, at all
events, that we like to remember them; thus that, after her
death, he did remember her. 2
1 Olhagaray: Histoire de Bearn et de Foix.
2 His own was not till 1555, when his daughter Jeanne
succeeded him.