screet one, and you shall take example
by her who pleases you best. You will see that just as love leads wicked
people to do wicked things, so does it lead a virtuous heart to do
things that are worthy of praise; for love in itself is good, although
the evil that is in those that are subject to it often makes it take a
new title, such as wanton, light, cruel or vile. However, you will see
from the tale that I am now about to relate that love does not change
the heart, but discovers it to be what it really is, wanton in the
wanton and discreet in the discreet."

[Illustration: 142.jpg Tailpiece]

[Illustration: 143a.jpg The Lord of Avannes paying His Court in Disguise]

[The Lord of Avannes paying His Court in Disguise]

[Illustration: 143.jpg Page Image]

_TALE XXVI_.

_By the counsel and sisterly affection of a virtuous lady,
the Lord of Avannes was drawn from the wanton love that he
entertained for a gentlewoman dwelling at Pampeluna_.

In the days of King Louis the Twelfth there lived a young lord called
Monsieur d'Avannes, (1) son of the Lord of Albret [and] brother to
King John of Navarre, with whom this aforesaid Lord of Avannes commonly
abode.

1 This is Gabriel d'Albret, Lord of Avesnes and Lesparre,
fourth son of Alan the Great, Sire d'Albret, and brother of
John d'Albret, King of Navarre, respecting whom see _post_,
note 4 to Tale XXX. Queen Margaret is in error in dating
this story from the reign of Louis XII. The incidents she
relates must have occurred between 1485 and 1490, under the
reign of Charles VIII., by whom Gabriel d'Albret, on
reaching manhood, was successively appointed counsellor and
chamberlain, Seneschal of Guyenne and Viceroy of Naples.
Under Louis XII. he took a prominent part in the Italian
campaigns of 1500-1503, in which latter year he is known to
have made his will, bequeathing all he possessed to his
brother, Cardinal d'Albret. He died a bachelor in 1504.--See
Anselme's _Histoire Genealogique_, vol. vi. p. 214.--L. and
Ed.

Now this young lord, who was fifteen years of age, was so handsome and
so fully endowed with every excellent grace that he seemed to have been
made solely to be loved and admired, as he was indeed by all who saw
him, and above all by a lady who dwelt in the town of Pampeluna (2) in
Navarre. She was married to a very rich man, with whom she lived in all
virtue