orraine, and was consequently the safest place for her--intending to
await there the result of the conflict. Little Margaret was at this
time about two years old.

[Footnote 2: The position of Nancy, as well as the situation
of the two provinces of Anjou and Lorraine, which are now
departments of France, may be seen by referring to any good
map of that country, or to that at the commencement of this
volume.]

[Sidenote: The battle.]

[Sidenote: Rene wounded and made prisoner.]

The battle was fought at a place called Bulgneville, and the fortune
of war, as it would seem, turned in this case against the right, for
Rene's party were entirely defeated, and he himself was wounded and
taken prisoner. He fought like a lion, it is said, as long as he
remained unharmed; but at last he received a desperate wound on his
brow, and the blood from this wound ran down into his eyes and blinded
him, so that he could do no more; and he was immediately seized by the
men who had wounded him, and made prisoner. The person who thus
wounded and captured him was the squire of a certain knight who had
espoused the cause of Antoine, named the Count St. Pol.

[Sidenote: Isabella's terror and distress.]

In the mean time Isabella had remained at Nancy with the children, in
a state of the utmost suspense and anxiety, awaiting the result of a
conflict on which depended the fate of every thing that was valuable
and dear to her. At length, at the window of the tower where she was
watching, with little Margaret in her arms, for the coming of a herald
from her husband to announce his victory, her heart sank within her to
see, instead of a messenger of joy and triumph, a broken crowd of
fugitives, breathless and covered with dust and blood, suddenly
bursting into view, and showing too plainly by their aspect of terror
and distress that all was lost. Isabella was overwhelmed with
consternation at the sight. She clasped little Margaret closely in her
arms, exclaiming in tones of indescribable agony, "My husband is
killed! my husband is killed!"

[Sidenote: Heavy tidings.]

Her distress and anguish were somewhat calmed by the fugitives
assuring her, when they arrived, that her husband was safe, though he
had been wounded and taken prisoner.

[Illustration: Distress of Margaret's Mother.]

[Sidenote: Sympathy for Isabella.]

[Sidenote: Isabella's interview with her uncle.]

There was a great deal