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Margaret, Queen of Navarre, 1492-1549

"The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. I. (of V.)"

(6) Methinks it is time that truth should cause you
to abandon the foolish love you bear to one who loves you not, and that
a just and reasonable love should banish fear, which cannot dwell in a
noble and virtuous heart. Come, madam, let us set aside the greatness
of your station and consider that, of all men and women in the world, we
are the most deceived, betrayed, and bemocked by those whom we have most
truly loved. Let us avenge ourselves, madam, not so much to requite them
in the way they deserve as to satisfy that love which, for my own part,
I cannot continue to endure and live. And I think that, unless your
heart be harder than flint or diamond, you cannot but feel some spark
from the fires which only increase the more I seek to conceal them. If
pity for me, who am dying of love for you, does not move you to love
me, at least pity for yourself should do so. You are so perfect that you
deserve to win the heart of every honourable man in the world, yet you
are contemned and forsaken by him for whose sake you have scorned all
others.


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