[217] Relazione di Francia (1538), Albèri, i. 203, 204. It will be noticed that Giustiniano wrote at a period when the youthful ardor of Francis had somewhat cooled down.
[218] The French king's proverbial ill-success gave rise to the taunt that his was "un esser savio in bocca e non in mente," but Marino Cavalli is charitably inclined to ascribe his misfortune rather to the lack of the right men to execute his designs, than to any fault of his own. Rel. des Amb. Vén., Tommaseo, i. 282.
[219] "Sire, vous en seriez marri le premier, et vous en prendroit très mal, et y perdriez plus que le pape; car une nouvelle religion, mise parmi un peuple, ne demande après que changement du prince." Brantôme, M. l'Admiral de Chastillon, Œuvres, ix. 202.
[220] Brantôme, Femmes illustres: Marguerite, reine de Navarre. Also Homines ill.: François premier (Œuvres, vii. 256, 257).
[221] The Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franç., v. 380, 381, publishes from a MS. in the library of the Louvre, an order from Francis I., countersigned by Bayard, directing his treasurer to pay to "Cecille de Viefville, dame des filles de joye suivans nostre court," the sum of forty-five livres tournois. This gift is to be shared with "les autres femmes de sa voccation," as she and they shall see fit, and to be received as "a New-Year's present for the first of January past, such as it has been customary from all time to make." The last clause may have been inserted for the purpose of palliating the disgraceful usage. This precious document is followed by Cecile's receipt, dated, like the order, Hesdin, February 18, 1539 (1540 New Style).
[222] Ch. de Sainte-Marthe, Oraison funèbre, 1550, apud Génin, i. 3.
Une doulceur assise en belle face,
Qui la beaulté des plus belles efface;
D'un regard chaste où n'habite nul vice;
. . . . . . .
Tons ces beaulx dons et mille davantaige
Sont en ung corps né de hault parentaige,
Et de grandeur tant droicte et bien formée,
Que faicte semble exprès pour estre aymée
D'hommes et dieux.
—Ined. Epistle of Marot to Margaret, prefixed to Génin, Notice, xiii., xiv. One of the two crayons of Margaret by contemporary artists, reproduced by Niel, Portraits des personnages illustres, etc., tome ii., was taken in early life; the other represents her as wearing the sombre dress she preferred in her last years.
[224] Vie politique de Marg. d' Angoulême, by Leroux de Lincy, prefixed to the Heptaméron (Ed. of the Soc. des bibliophiles), i. p. lxiv.