then she visits Montmorency at the camp of
Avignon, which she praises to her brother; next, hastening to Picardy,
when the Flemish troops are invading it, she writes from Amiens and
speaks of Therouenne and Boulogne, which she has found well fortified.

Francis, however, did not value her society and counsel solely
for political reasons; he was also fond of conversing with her on
literature, and at times they composed amatory verses together.
According to an oft-repeated tradition, one day at the Chateau of
Chambord, whilst Margaret was boasting to her brother of the superiority
of womankind in matters of love, the King took a diamond ring from his
finger and wrote on one of the window panes this couplet:--

"Souvent femme varie, Bien fol est qui s'y fie." (1)

Brantome, who declares that he saw the inscription, adds, however, that
it consisted merely of three words, "Toute femme varie" (all women are
fickle), inscribed in _large_ letters at the side of the window. (2) He
says nothing of any pane of glass (all window panes were then extremely
_small_) or of a diamond having been used; (3) and in all probability
Francis simply traced these words with a piece of chalk or charcoal on
the side of one of the deep embrasures, which are still to be seen in
the windows of the chateau.

1 "Woman is often fickle,
Crazy indeed is he who trusts her."

2 _Vies des Dames galantes_, Disc. iv.

3 The practice of cutting glass with diamonds does not seem
to have been resorted to until the close of the sixteenth
century. See _Les Subtiles et Plaisantes Inventions de J.
Prevost_, Lyons, 1584, part i. pp. 30, 31.

Margaret carried her complaisance for her brother so far as to excuse
his illicit amours, and she was usually on the best of terms with his
favourites. (1) It has been asserted that improper relations existed
between the brother and sister, but this charge rests solely upon
an undated letter from her to Francis, which may be interpreted in a
variety of ways. Count de la Ferriere, in his introduction to Margaret's
record of her expenditure, (2) expresses the opinion that it was penned
in 1525, prior to her hasty departure from Spain; while M. Le Roux de
Lincy assigns it to a later date, remarking that it was probably written
during one of the frequent quarrels which arose between Margaret's
brother and her husband. However, they are both of opinion that the
letter does not b