conceal it by having the Te Deum sung at the funeral in lieu of the
ordinary service, and by setting up in the streets of Alençon the
inscription, "God gave him, God has taken him away." However, from that
time forward she never laid aside her black dress, though later on
she wore it trimmed with marten's fur. Her best known portrait (1)
represents her attired in this style with the quaint Bearnese cap, which
she had also adopted, set upon her head.

1 Bibliothèque Nationale, _Recueil de Portraits au crayon,
&c._, fol. 46.

Not only did Margaret lose her son by death, but she was prevented from
enjoying the companionship of her daughter Jane. Francis, who never once
lost sight of his own interests, deemed it advisable to possess himself
of this child, who was the heiress to the throne of Navarre. Accordingly
when Jane was but two years old she was sent by the King to the Château
of Plessis-lès-Tours, where she was carefully brought up in strict
seclusion.

To the fact that Margaret was never really happy with either of her
husbands, and that she was precluded from discharging a mother's duties,
one may ascribe, in part, her fondness for gathering round her a Court
in which divines, scholars, and wits prominently figured. The great
interest which she took in religious matters, as is shown by so many of
her letters, (1) led her to shelter many of the persecuted Reformers in
Beam; others she saved from the stake, and frequently in writing to
the King and Marshal de Montmorency she begs for the release of some
imprisoned heretic.

1 One of these letters, written by her either to Philiberta