For some days Catharine and her daughter stayed at Chatellerault, loath to say goodbye; but at last, on the 29th November, the parting could be delayed no longer, and, heartbroken, mother and daughter took a tearful farewell. Isabel had been reared in the poetical court in which Ronsard sang, and every courtier wooed in verse. Mary Stuart throughout her life showed the effects of such training, and so did Isabel. She and her mother had exchanged poetical letters during the months of their mourning, and continued to do so afterwards; and on her lonely way from Chatellerault Isabel solaced herself by inditing a letter in verse to the beloved mother whom she had just left. As poetry it leaves much to be desired. The poem is too long to quote, but in it the writer compares her desire to see her husband with the much stronger natural love for her mother, who, she says, is to her father, mother, and husband in one. The epistle ends thus:—
‘Tantost je sens mon œil plorer puis ryre,
Mais la fin est toujours d’estre martyre,
Qui durera sans prendre fin ne cesse,
Jusques á tant que je reprenne adresse
Pour retourner vers vous en diligence:
Lors oblyant la trop facheuse absence
Je recevrai la joye et le plaisir,
Et joyrez de mon parfait desir
D’ensemble veoir père mère et mari.’[[170]]