Yet very different sentiments filled the hearts of the n.o.bles and of the people, as they saw the d.u.c.h.ess of Alencon going into the midst of the enemy's councils, and among the fierce soldiery of the catholic king.

All admired the courage and devotion of this young woman, but did not share it. The friends of the princess had fears on her behalf, which were but too near being realized. The evangelical Christians were full of hope. The captivity of Francis I. had brought unheard-of severities on the friends of the Reform; his liberation, they thought, might bring them to an end. To open the gates of Spain to the king, would be to close those of the prisons into which the servants of the Word of G.o.d had been thrown. Margaret encouraged herself in a project towards which all her soul felt attracted by so many different motives:

Heaven's height cannot my pa.s.sage stay, Nor powers of h.e.l.l can bar my way, My Saviour holds the keys of both.

Her woman's heart was strengthened by that faith which overcomes the world, and her resolution was irrevocable. Every preparation was made for this important and dangerous journey.

The Archbishop of Embrun, afterwards Cardinal of Tournon, and the president Selves, were already at Madrid, treating for the king's deliverance. They were placed under Margaret's orders, as was also the Bishop of Tarbes, afterwards Cardinal of Grammont; full powers being given to the princess alone. At the same time Montmorency, afterwards so hostile to the Reform, was sent in all haste to Spain to procure a safe-conduct for the king's sister.[1152] The emperor objected at first, and said that it was the duty of his ministers alone to arrange this affair. "One hour's conference," exclaimed Selves, "between your majesty, the king my master, and the d.u.c.h.ess of Alencon, would forward the treaty more than a month's discussion between diplomatists."[1153]

[1152] Memoires de Du Bellay, p. 124.

[1153] Histoire de France, par Garnier, tome xxiv.

[Sidenote: MISSION AND SAFE-CONDUCT.]

Margaret, impatient to arrive in consequence of the king's illness, set off without a safe-conduct, accompanied by a splendid train.[1154]

She quitted the court, moving towards the Mediterranean; but while she was on the road, Montmorency returned with letters from Charles guaranteeing her liberty for three months only. That matters not; she will not be stopped. The eagerness for this journey was such that the d.u.c.h.ess had been compelled to ask the king whom she should select to accompany her. "Your good servants have so great a desire to see you, that each one prays to be allowed to go with me," she wrote to her brother.

[1154] Pour taster au vif la voulunte de l'esleu empereur......madame Marguerite, d.u.c.h.esse d'Alencon, tres-notablement accompaignee de plusieurs amba.s.sadeurs......Les gestes de Francoise de Valois, par E.

Dolet, 1540.

Margaret had scarcely reached the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean when the fears of those about her on the insufficiency of the safe-conduct, but especially the bad weather and the tempest, made her halt. "The seamen themselves (wrote she to Montmorency) are alarmed." On the 27th August she made up her mind. "The bearer," she wrote to the king on the very day, "the bearer will tell you how the heavens, the sea, and the opinions of men have r.e.t.a.r.ded my departure. But He alone to whom all things pay obedience, hath given such favourable weather that every difficulty is solved......I will not delay either on account of my own security or of the sea, which is unsettled at this season, to hasten towards the place where I may see you; for fear of death, imprisonment, and every sort of evil are now so habitual to me, that I hold lightly my life, health, glory, and honour, thinking by this means to share your fortune, which I would desire to bear alone."[1155] Nothing therefore could detain this princess at Aigues-Mortes,[1156] and in this port Margaret embarked on board the ship prepared for her. Led by Providence into Spain, rather for the deliverance of humble and oppressed Christians, than to free the mighty King of France from his captivity, she confided herself to the waves of that sea which had borne her brother a captive after the disastrous battle of Pavia.

[1155] Lettres de la reine de Navarre a Francois I. pp. 39, 40.

[1156] Jam in itinere erat Margarita, Francisci soror......e fossis Marianis solvens, Barcinonem primum, deinde Caesar Augustam appulerat.

Belcarius, Rerum Gallic. Comm. p. 565.

END OF VOLUME THIRD.