t me. And
I took to Lawe, and to hym sayde that he was a theefe, and that I thowte
not the King hadde wyth hym ledde theeves out of hys contree." Somehow,
one feels glad of that half-hour "after the bankett" in Marguerite's
hard life.

Brandon behaved well in the matter when he found that Marguerite had
fully made up her mind to end their friendship. His daughter by his
first wife and an adopted daughter were both under Marguerite's care at
her court, and Suffolk offered to remove them if the archduchess wished
him to do so. Another young English girl also was under Marguerite's
charge, Anne Bullen, better known to history as Anne Boleyn. Suffolk,
about this time, adopted for his shield the singular motto: "Who can
hold that will away?"

The affair with the Duke of Suffolk being over, Marguerite plunged into
politics, straining every nerve to secure the imperial succession for
Charles against the new claimant who had arisen, Francis I. of France.
When her help was no longer needed by the young emperor, Marguerite
retired to her favorite spot, Malines. There she held a quiet court,
devoting herself to study. When remonstrated with upon the score of
health for confining herself too closely to books, she replied: "When
the mind has congenial employment, the body will always take care of
itself." At the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and also at Cambrai, where
the "Ladies' Peace" treaty was arranged by herself and Louise of Savoy,
Marguerite again met her old lover, the Duke of Suffolk. If history
holds any records of that meeting, they are still hidden in her secret
archives.

The Renaissance and the Reformation both touched Marguerite of Austria
closely. Toward the Renaissance she was kindly and even gratefully
inclined. For Protestantism, however, she had only scorn and hatred. Her
natural benevolence kept her from the cruel persecutions which darkened
the reign of another Marguerite--Marguerite of Parma--in the
Netherlands. But Marguerite of Austria, nevertheless, was openly
committed to "the extermination of the Lutherans." That her niece Isabel
died in the new and hated faith was a source of great sorrow to her.
Isabel, with her last breath, committed her children to her aunt
Marguerite's care; and Marguerite, whose life had been largely spent in
rearing other women's children, took these little orphans also to her
heart.

When the Reformation came, even the gay, profligate courts of the German
principalities were