gust, 1525,
he heard that Francis I. was ill: "from great melancholy he had fallen
into a violent fever." The population of Madrid was in commotion;
Francis I. had become popular there; many people went to pray for him in
the churches; the doctors told the emperor that there was fear for the
invalid's life, and that he alone could alleviate the malady by
administering some hope. Charles V. at once granted the safe-conduct
which had been demanded of him for Marguerite of France, and on the 18th
of September he himself went to Madrid to pay a visit to the captive.
Francis, on seeing him enter the chamber, said, "So your Majesty has come
to see your prisoner die?" "You are not my prisoner," answered Charles,
"but my brother and my friend: I have no other purpose than to give you
your liberty and every satisfaction you can desire." Next day Marguerite
arrived; her mother, the regent, had accompanied her as far as
Pont-Saint-Esprit; she had embarked, on the 27th of August, at
Aigues-Mortes, and, disembarking at Barcelona, had gone to Madrid by
litter; in order to somewhat assuage her impatience she had given
expression to it in the following tender stanzas:

"For the bliss that awaits me so strong
Is my yearning that yearning is pain;
One hour is a hundred years long;
My litter, it bears me in vain;
It moves not, or seems to recede;
Such speed would I make if I might:
O, the road, it is weary indeed,
Where lies--at the end--my delight!

"I gaze all around me all day
For some one with tidings to bring,
Not ceasing--ne'er doubt me--to pray
Unto God for the health of my king
I gaze; and when none is descried,
Then I weep; and, what else? if you ask,
To my paper my grief I confide
This, this is my sorrowful task.

"O, welcome be he who at length
Shall tap at my door and shall cry,
'The king to new health and new strength
Is returning; the king will not die!'
Then she, who were now better dead,
Will run, the news-bearer to see,
And kiss him for what he hath said,
That her brother from danger is free."

Francis was not "free from danger" when his sister arrived;