_TALE X_.

_Florida, after virtuously resisting Amadour, who had assailed her
honour almost to the last extremity, repaired, upon her husbands death,
to the convent of Jesus, and there took the veil_. (1)

1 This tale appears to be a combination of fact and fiction.
Although Queen Margaret states that she has changed the
names of the persons, and also of the places where the
incidents happened, several historical events are certainly
brought into the narrative, the scene of which is laid in
Spain during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. M. Le Roux
de Lincy is of opinion, however, that Margaret really refers
to some affair at the Court of Charles VIII. or Louis XII.,
and he remarks that there is great similarity between the
position of the Countess of Aranda, left a widow at an early
age with a son and a daughter, and that of Louise of Savoy
with her two children. M. Lacroix and M. Dillaye believe the
hero and heroine to be Admiral de Bonnivet and Margaret. It
has often been suspected that the latter regarded her
brother's favourite with affection until after the attempt
related in Tale IV.--Ed.

In the county of Aranda, (2) in Aragon, there lived a lady who, while
still very young, was left a widow, with a son and a daughter, by the
Count of Aranda, the name of the daughter being Florida. This lady
strove to bring up her children in all the virtues and qualities which