Medici, who, after remaining childless during ten years of
wedlock, gave birth to a son, afterwards Francis II., in
January 1543. The peace previously spoken of would appear to
be that signed at Crespy in September 1544. Both M. de
Montaiglon and M. Dillaye are of opinion, however, that a
word or two is deficient in the MS., and that Margaret
intended to imply the rupture of peace in 1543, when Henry
VIII. allied himself with the Emperor Charles V. against
Francis I.--Ed.

By reason, however, of our now great leisure, it can be accomplished in
ten days, whilst we wait for our bridge to be finished. If it so pleased
you, we might go every day from noon till four of the clock into yonder
pleasant meadow beside the river Gave. The trees there are so leafy that
the sun can neither penetrate the shade nor change the coolness to heat.
Sitting there at our ease, we might each one tell a story of something
we have ourselves seen, or heard related by one worthy of belief. At
the end of ten days we shall have completed the hundred,(14) and if
God wills it that our work be found worthy in the eyes of the lords and
ladies I have mentioned, we will on our return from this journey present
them with it, in lieu of images and paternosters,(15) and feeling
assured that they will hold this to be a more pleasing gift. If,
however, any one can devise some plan more agreeable than mine, I will
fall in with his opinion."

14 This passage plainly indicates that the Queen meant to
pen a Decameron.--Ed.

15 This is an allusion to the holy images, medals, and
chaplets which people brought back with them from
pilgrimages.--B. J.

All the company replied that it was not possible to give better advice,
and that they awaited the morning in impatience, in order to begin.

Thus they spent that day joyously, reminding one another of what they
had seen in their time. As soon as the morning was come they went to
the room of Madame Oisille, whom they found already at her prayers. They
listened to her reading for a full hour, then piously heard mass, and
afterwards went to dinner at ten o'clock.(16)

16 At that period ten o'clock was the Court dinner-hour.
Fifty years earlier people used to dine at eight in the
morning. Louis XII., however, changed the hour of his meals
to suit his wife, Mary of England, who had been accustomed
to dine at noon.--B. J.