Although the garments she wore, a kerchief and mantle, made her appear more beautiful than ever, the young Prince affected not to look at her or notice her, but spoke unceasingly to her husband about his affairs, as to one who had long had them in his hands. And, whilst the lady was kneeling with the confections before the Prince, and her husband was gone to the sideboard in order to serve him with drink, she told him that on leaving the room he must not fail to enter a closet which he would find on the right hand, and whither she would very soon come to see him.

As soon as he had drunk, he thanked the advocate, who was all eagerness to attend him; but the Prince assured him that in the place whither he was going he had no need of attendance, and thereupon turning to the wife, he said—

“Moreover, I will not do so ill as to deprive you of your excellent husband, who is also an old servant of mine. Well may you render thanks to God since you are so fortunate as to have such a husband, well may you render him service and obedience. If you did otherwise, you would be blameworthy indeed.”

With these virtuous words the young Prince went away, and, closing the door behind him so that he might not be followed to the staircase, he entered the closet, whither also came the fair lady as soon as her husband had fallen asleep.

Thence she led the Prince into a cabinet as choicely furnished as might be, though in truth there were no fairer figures in it than he and she, no matter what garments they may have been pleased to wear. And here, I doubt not, she kept word with him as to all that she had promised.

He departed thence at the hour which he had appointed with his gentlemen, and found them at the spot where he had aforetime bidden them wait.

As this intercourse lasted a fairly long time, the young Prince chose a shorter way to the advocate’s house, and this led him through a monastery of monks. (4) And so well did he contrive matters with the Prior, that the porter used always to open the gate for him about midnight, and do the like also when he returned. And, as the house which he visited was hard by, he used to take nobody with him.

4 If at this period Jane Disome, the heroine of the story,
lived in the Rue de la Pauheminerie, where she is known to
have died some years afterwards, this monastery, in Baron
Jerome Pichon’s opinion, would be the Blancs-Manteaux, in
the Marais district of Paris. We may further point out that
in the Rue Barbette, near by, there was till modern times a
house traditionally known as the “hôtel de la belle
Féronnière.” That many writers have confused the heroine of
this tale with La Belle Féronnière (so called because her
husband was a certain Le Féron, an advocate) seems manifest;
the intrigue in which the former took part was doubtless
ascribed in error to the latter, and the proximity of their
abodes may have led to the mistake. It should be pointed
out, however, that the amour here recorded by Queen Margaret
took place in or about the year 1515, before Francis I.
ascended the throne, whereas La Féronnière was in all her
beauty between 1530 and 1540. The tradition that the King
had an intrigue with La Féronnière reposes on the flimsiest
evidence (see Appendix B), and the supposition, re-echoed by
the Bibliophile Jacob, that it was carried on in the Rue de
l’Hirondelle, is entirely erroneous. The house, adorned with
the salamander device and corneted initials of Francis I.,
which formerly extended from that street to the Rue Git-le-
Coeur, never had any connection with La Féronnière. It was
the famous so-called Palace of Love which the King built for
his acknowledged mistress, Anne de Pisseleu, Duchess of
Étampes.—Ed.

Although he led the life that I have described, he was nevertheless a Prince that feared and loved God, and although he made no pause when going, he never failed on his return to continue for a long time praying in the church. And the monks, who when going to and fro at the hour of matins used to see him there on his knees, were thereby led to consider him the holiest man alive.

This Prince had a sister (5) who often visited this monastery, and as she loved her brother more than any other living being, she used to commend him to the prayers of all whom she knew to be good.