do it not.”  Whether Blanche wrote in these words or not, she certainly prevented the marriage, and Yolande remained single until 1238 when she married the Comte de la Marche, who was, by the way, almost as bitter an enemy of Blanche as Pierre had been; but by that time both Blanche and Pierre had ceased to be regents.  Yolande’s figure in the window is that of a girl, perhaps twelve or fourteen years old; Jean is younger, certainly not more than eight or ten years of age; and the appearance of the two children shows that the window itself should date between 1225 and 1230, the year when Pierre de Dreux was condemned because he had renounced his homage to King Louis, declared war on him, and invited the King of England into France.  As already told, Philippe Hurepel de Boulogne, the Comte de la Marche, Enguerrand de Couci,—­nearly all the great nobles,—­had been leagued with Pierre de Dreux since Blanche’s regency began in 1226.

That these transept windows harmonize at all, is due to the Virgin, not to the donors.  At the time they were designed, supposing it to be during Blanche’s regency (1226-36), the passions of these donors brought France to momentary ruin, and the Virgin in Blanche’s Rose de France, as she looked across the church, could not see a single friend of Blanche.  What is more curious, she saw enemies in plenty, and in full readiness for battle.  We have seen in the centre of the small rose in the north transept, Philippe Hurepel still waiting her orders; across the nave, in another small rose of the south transept, sits Pierre de Dreux on his horse.  The upper windows on the side walls of the choir are very interesting but impossible to see, even with the best glasses, from the floor of the church.  Their sequence and dates have already been discussed; but their feeling is shown by the character of the Virgin, who in French territory, next the north transept, is still the Virgin of France, but in Pierre’s territory, next the Rose de Dreux, becomes again the Virgin of Dreux, who is absorbed in the Child,—­not the Child absorbed in her,—­and accordingly the window shows the chequers and ermines.

The figures, like the stone figures outside, are the earliest of French art, before any school of painting fairly existed.  Among them, one can see no friend of Blanche.  Indeed, outside of her own immediate family and the Church, Blanche had no friend of much importance except the famous Thibaut of Champagne, the single member of the royal family who took her side and suffered for her sake, and who, as far as books tell, has no window or memorial here.  One might suppose that Thibaut, who loved both Blanche and the Virgin, would have claimed a place, and perhaps he did; but one seeks him in vain.  If Blanche had friends here, they are gone.  Pierre de Dreux, lance in hand, openly defies her, and it was not on her brother-in-law Philippe Hurepel that she could depend for defence.