in which she exhibited
great grace and dignity.

She also greatly loved hunting; about which I heard a lady of the
Court tell this tale: King Francis having chosen and gathered a
few of his Court whom he called "the little band of Court ladies,"
which included the handsomest, daintiest and most favoured, often
escaped from the Court and went to other estates to hunt deer
and while away the time, sometimes staying thus in retreat eight
days, ten days, sometimes more, sometimes less, just as the humour
took him.

Our Queen (who was then simply Madame la Dauphine) seeing that
such parties were made up without her, and that even Mesdames her
sisters-in-law were included while she was left at home, begged
the King to always take her with him, and to further honour her
by never allowing her to go about without being accompanied by
him.

It's said that she, who was always shrewd and clever, did this
as much or more to watch the King's movements and to learn his
secrets and to be able to hear and know all that went on, as
she did it from pure liking for the chase.

King Francis was so pleased with this request, showing, as it
seemed, the love she had for his company, that he heartily granted
her request. He loved her more now than ever before and showed
delight in giving her the pleasures of the hunt, which she followed,
riding at full speed and ever by his side.

She was a good and fearless horseback rider, sitting her horse
with easy grace, and was the first to ride with the leg around
the pommel, which was more graceful and becoming than the former
mode of sitting with feet upon a board. She loved to ride horseback
even up to the time she was sixty years old and over, and when
her growing feebleness prevented her riding she pined for it. It
was one of her greatest pleasures to ride far and fast, though
she had many falls, even breaking her leg and bruising her head
so severely that it had to be trepanned. After she became a widow
and had charge of the King and the kingdom, she accompanied the
King everywhere and took all her children with her; and when the
King, her husband, was still living she generally accompanied
him to the stag and other hunts. If he played pall-mall she often
watched him, and sometimes played herself. She was also fond of
shooting baked clay balls with a cross-bow, and she shot well
too; so that she always took with her her cross-bow when riding,
in order if any game was seen she could shoot