"
In so large a number of stories with so great a variety of subjects, it
naturally cannot but be the case that there is a considerable diversity
of tone. But that peculiarity at which we have glanced more than once,
the combination of voluptuous passion with passionate regret and a
mystical devotion, is seldom absent for long together. The general
note, indeed, of the _Heptameron_ is given by more than one passage
in Brantome--at greatest length by one which Sainte-Beuve has rightly
quoted, at the same time and also rightly rebuking the sceptical Abbe's
determination to see in it little more than a piece of _precieuse_
mannerliness (though, indeed, the _Precieuses_ were not yet). Yet even
Sainte-Beuve has scarcely pointed out quite strongly enough how entirely
this is the keynote of all Margaret's work, and especially of the
_Heptameron_. The story therefore may be worth telling again, though
it may be found in the "Cinquieme Discours" of the _Vies des Dames
Galantes_.
Brantome's brother, not yet a captain in the army, but a student
travelling in Italy, had in sojourning at Ferrara, when Renee of France
was Duchess, fallen in love with a certain Mademoiselle de la Roche.
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