To be ice-bound, tohear the wolves in their long and dreary howl, to protect the very gravesof her beloved from being dug up, to watch the floating icebergs, notknowing what new and savage visitor might be borne by them to the island,what a complication of terror was this for Marguerite!For two years and five months in all she dwelt upon the Isle of Demons,the last year wholly alone. Then, as she stood upon the shore, some Bretonfishing-smacks, seeking codfish, came in sight. Making signals with fireand calling for aid, she drew them nearer; but she was now dressed in fursonly, and seemed to them but one of the fancied demons of the island.Beating up slowly and watchfully toward the shore, they came withinhearing of her voice and she told her dreary tale. At last they took herin charge, and bore her back to France with the bearskins she hadprepared; and taking refuge in the village of Nautron, in a remoteprovince (Perigord), where she could escape the wrath of Roberval, shetold her story to Thevet, the explorer, to the Princess Marguerite ofNavarre (sister of Francis I.), and to others. Thevet tells it in his"Cosmographie," and Marguerite of Navarre in her "Cent NouvellesNouvelles."She told Thevet that after the first two months, the demons came to herno more, until she was left wholly alone; then they renewed their visits,but not continuously, and she felt less fear.
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