ase as
painful and humiliating to Rene and Isabella as possible, the person
chosen to be her future husband was the very Count St. Pol whose
squire had cut down and captured Rene at the battle of Bulgneville.

[Sidenote: Hard conditions of peace.]

[Sidenote: Rene can not procure the money for his ransom.]

These conditions were very hard, but Isabella consented to them, as it
was only by so doing that any hope seemed to be opened before her of
obtaining the release of her husband. And even this hope, in the end,
proved delusive. Rene found that, notwithstanding all his efforts, he
could not obtain the money which the duke required for his ransom.
Accordingly, in order to save his boys, whom he had delivered to the
duke as hostages, he was obliged to return to Dijon and surrender
himself again a prisoner. His parting with his wife and children,
before going a second time into a confinement to which they could now
see no end, was heartrending. Even little Margaret, who was yet so
very young, joined from sympathy in the general sorrow, and wept
bitterly when her father went away.

[Sidenote: His long confinement.]

The duke confined his captive in an upper room in a high tower of the
castle of Dijon, and kept him imprisoned there for several years. One
of the boys was kept with him, but the other was set at liberty. All
this time Margaret remained with her mother. She was a very beautiful
and a very intelligent child, and was a great favorite with all who
knew her. The interest which was awakened by her beauty and her other
personal attractions was greatly increased by the general sympathy
which was felt for the misfortunes of her father, and the loneliness
and distress of her mother.

[Sidenote: 1436.]

[Sidenote: His occupations and amusements in prison.]

In the mean time, Rene, shut up in the tower at the castle of Dijon,
made himself as contented as he could, and employed his time in
various peaceful and ingenious occupations. Though he had fought well
in the battle with Antoine, he was, in fact, not at all of a warlike
disposition. He was very fond of music, and poetry, and painting; and
he occupied his leisure during his confinement in executing beautiful
miniatures and paintings upon glass, after the manner of those times.
Some of these paintings remained in the window of a church in Dijon,
where they were placed soon after Rene painted them, for several
hundred years.

[Sidenote: Origin of Rene's roya