the man, though a robber, devoted himself to her service. He concealed the queen and her son for some time in the woods, and then led them to the coast, whence they escaped to Flanders.
Margaret went to her father's court, where she remained several years, while her husband was imprisoned in the Tower of London, n 1470, the rebellion of the Earl of Warwick against Edward, and his subsequent arrival in France, produced an alliance between him and the exiled queen. It was agreed that Warwick should endeavour to restore the house of Lancaster, and that Edward, the son of Margaret and Henry, should marry his daughter Anne, which alliance took place in France. Warwick landed in England, and Edward was forced to escape to Flanders. Margaret was preparing to second his efforts; but on the very day on which she landed at Weymouth, the battle of Barnet, April 14th., 1471, terminated the life of Warwick, and the hopes of the confederacy. Margaret, with her son, took refuge in the sanctuary of Beaulieu, in Hampshire, intending to return to France; but being encouraged by the increase of her party, she advanced to Tewksbury, where she was met by Edward, who totally defeated her, and took her and her son prisoners, the latter of whom was cruelly put to death. Margaret was confined in the Tower, where her husband died about the same time. Louis the Eleventh ransomed her, and she returned again to her father's protection.
The home to which the loving René welcomed his forlorn daughter, was a castle on the River Mayence; the scenery was beautiful, and the king had a gallery of paintings and sculpture, which he took delight in adorning with his own paintings; he had also ornamented the walls of his garden with heraldic designs carved in marble. It was in such pursuits that Rene, a true Proven9al sovereign, found alleviations for his afflictions. But Margaret's temperament was of too stormy a nature to admit of the slightest alleviation of her griefs. She passed her whole time in bitter regrets, or unavailing sorrows. This intensity of suffering affected her constitution. The agonies and agitations she had undergone seemed to turn her blood into gall: her eyes were sunken and hollow, her skin was disfigured by a dry, scaly leprosy, until this princess, who had been a miracle of beauty, such as the world seldom beholds, became a spectacle of horror.
Her errors and her misfortunes were the result of the circumstances by which she was surrounded; her talents and virtues were of a lofty stamp; had she been married to a stronger-minded man, she would no doubt have been a better and a happier woman.
MARGARET OF FRANCE,
Queen of Navarre, daughter of Henry the Second of France and Catharine de Medicis, was born in 1552. Brantôme says, "If ever there was a perfect beauty born, it was the Queen of Navarre, who eclipsed the women who were thought charming in her absence." She walked extremely well, and was considered the most graceful dancer in Europe. She gave early proofs of genius, and was a brilliant assemblage of talents and faults, of virtues and vices. This may, in a great measure, be attributed to her education in the most polished, yet most corrupt court in Europe. Margaret was demanded in marriage, both by the Emperor of Germany and the King of Portugal; but, in 1572, she was married to Henry, Prince
