Adieu, madame, et ma maistresse chère,
Pour qui la mort me vient montrer sa chère.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fay moy graver sur ma lame marbrine
Ces quatre vers, au moins, si j'en suis digne.
Then comes the epitaph quoted above. L'amant vert finally addresses his mistress from the tomb, and describes his descent into Hades, where he meets Mercury and converses with him in the Elysian fields.
Rénacle de Florennes sang Margaret's praises in Latin verse, and it was largely due to her influence that the emperor appointed him his private secretary. The four Everards and Jean Second all added their tribute in her honour; whilst Adrian of Utrecht, the future Pope, and the learned Cornelius Agrippa remained through life her firm and devoted friends.
During the sixteenth century the beautiful industry of tapestry-making reached almost its highest point of perfection. After the fall of Arras in 1477 the workmen from that town settled in Bruges, Brussels, and Tournay. Amongst the great tapestry-workers were Stephen of Brumberghe, John of Roubrouck, Perquin d'Ervine, Peter van Oppenem, John van den Brugghe, etc., but the prince of tapestry-makers was Peter van Aelst, who for more than thirty years turned out tapestries innumerable from his workshops, the most celebrated being 'The Acts of the Apostles.' Although during the Middle Ages the designs chiefly represented religious subjects from the Old and New Testaments, in the sixteenth century, with the influence of the Renaissance, there crept in a taste for mythological and historical scenes such as those in the Hôtel de Ville at Brussels, or the Legend of Notre Dame du Sablon, which latter contains contemporary portraits of Margaret and her nephews and nieces;[147] or the Legend of Trajan, the Story of Herkenbald, and the History of Julius Caesar attributed to the designs of Roger van der Weyden. John de Maubeuge, or Mabuse, and Bernard van Orley also exercised a wide influence over the industry, and their beautiful compositions were much sought after. With Van Orley a secular feeling prevailed even in his religious subjects. His saints and angels, Virgins and Apostles, appear almost pagan in design. It is easy to follow the different phases of this beautiful industry in such pieces as 'The Acts of the Apostles' in the Vatican, 'Saint Gregory's Mass' at Nuremberg, 'The Story of Psyche' at Fontainebleau, 'The Triumphs of Bacchus,' the 'Rape of the Sabines,' etc.
