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 Feronniere was in all her beauty between 1530 and 1540.  The tradition that the King had an intrigue with La Feronniere 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 Feronniere.  It was the famous so-called Palace of Love which the King built for his acknowledged mistress, Anne de Pisseleu, Duchess of Etampes.—­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.

5 This of course is Queen Margaret, then Duchess of Alencon.  On account of her apparent intimacy with the prior, M. de Montaiglon conjectures that the monastery may have been that of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.—­See ante, Tale XXII.—­Ed.

One day, when she was in this manner commending him lovingly to the Prior of the monastery, the Prior said to her—­

“Ah, madam, whom are you thus commending to me?  You are speaking to me of a man in whose prayers, above those of all others, I would myself fain be remembered.  For if he be not a holy man and a just”—­here he quoted the passage which says, “Blessed is he that can do evil and doeth it not”—­“I cannot hope to be held for such.”

The sister, wishing to learn what knowledge this worthy father could have of her brother’s goodness, questioned him so pressingly that he at last told her the secret under the seal of the confessional, saying—­

“Is it not an admirable thing to see a young and handsome Prince forsake pleasure and repose in order to come so often to hear our matins?  Nor comes he like a Prince seeking honour of men, but quite alone, like a simple monk, and hides himself in one of our chapels.  Truly such piety so shames both the monks and me, that we do not deem ourselves worthy of being called men of religion in comparison with him.”