Such as had studied and were people of letters
were excepted, for Monseigneur the Dauphin would not allow of their art
being brought in, fearing lest the flowers of rhetoric should in some
wise prove injurious to the truth of the tales. But the weighty affairs
in which the King had engaged, the peace between him and the King of
England, the bringing to bed of the Dauphiness,(13) and many other
matters of a nature to engross the whole Court, caused the enterprise to
be entirely forgotten.
13 The confinement mentioned here is that of Catherine de
Medici, who, after remaining childless during ten years of
wedlock, gave birth to a son, afterwards Francis II., in
January 1543. The peace previously spoken of would appear to
be that signed at Crespy in September 1544. Both M. de
Montaiglon and M. Dillaye are of opinion, however, that a
word or two is deficient in the MS., and that Margaret
intended to imply the rupture of peace in 1543, when Henry
VIII. allied himself with the Emperor Charles V.
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