And since our souls have sense after our death,
it cannot be but that this faithful one, dead so lately, felt your
presence as soon as you came near her; and if you have not perceived it,
because of the thickness of the tomb, doubt not that none the less she
felt it. And forasmuch as it is a pious work to make memory of the dead,
and notably of those whom we loved, I pray you give her a _pater_ and an
_ave_, and likewise a _de profundis_, and pour out holy water. So
shall you make acquist of the name of a right faithful lover and a good
Christian." And she left him that he might do this.
Brantome (though he had an admiration for Margaret, whose lady of
honour his grandmother had been, and who, according to the Bourdeilles
tradition, composed her novels in travelling) thought this a pretty
fashion of converse. "Voila," he says, "l'opinion de cette bonne
princesse; laquelle la tenait plus par gentillesse et par forme de devis
que par creance a mon avis." Sainte-Beuve, on the contrary, and with
better reason, sees in it faith, graciousness, feminine delicacy, and
piety at once.
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