entreaties and the promptings of his own better feeling--at times in
defiance of his own manifest advantage--became during the later part of
his reign the first of that long line of persecutors of whom the
Huguenots were the unhappy victims.

[Sidenote: Studious disposition of Margaret.]

Margaret was two years older than her brother. Born April 11, 1492, in
the city of Angouleme, she enjoyed, in common with Francis, all the
opportunities of liberal culture afforded by her exalted station. These
opportunities her keener intellect enabled her to improve far better
than the future king. While Francis was indulging his passion for the
chase, in company with Robert de la Marck, "the Boar of the Ardennes,"
Margaret was patiently applying herself to study. It is not always easy
to determine how much is to be set down as truth, and how much belongs
to the category of fiction, in the current stories of the scholarly
attainments of princely personages. But there is good reason in the
present case to believe that, unlike most of the ladies of her age that
were reputed prodigies of learning, Margaret of Angouleme did not
confine herself to the modern languages, but became proficient in
Latin, besides acquiring some notion of Greek and Hebrew. By extensive
reading, and through intercourse with the best living masters of the
French language, she made herself a graceful writer. She was, moreover,
a poet of no mean pretensions, as her verses, often comparing favorably
with those of Clement Marot, abundantly testify. It was, however, to the
higher walks of philosophical and religious thought that Margaret felt
most strongly drawn. Could implicit credit be given to the partial
praises of her professed eulogist, Charles de Sainte-Marthe, who owed
his escape from the stake to her powerful intercession, we might affirm
that the contemplation of the sublime truths of Revelation early
influenced her entire character, and that "the Spirit of God began then
to manifest His presence in her eyes, her expression, her walk, her
conversation--in a word, in all her actions."[222]

[Sidenote: Her personal appearance.]

But, whatever may have been the precocious virtues of Margaret at the
age of fifteen, it is certain that when, by her brother's elevation to
the throne, she was introduced to the foremost place at court, it was
her remarkable qualities of heart, quite as much as her recognized
mental abilities, that called forth universal admirati