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At Brantome's, when that piece was to be played for the first time, he sat in his wheel chair suffocated by sudden doubts, as if on trial for his life. Lilla sat beside him, her hand on his. No one else was there except Brantome, who bent over the manuscript his haggard old face, revealing nearly as much agitation as did David.
The King of Malabar had shown a Venetian a rosary of one hundred and four pearls, one for every god that he worshipped. When the Duke de Valentinois, son of Alexander VI., visited Louis XII. of France, his horse was loaded with gold leaves, according to Brantome, and his cap had double rows of rubies that threw out a great light.
Hypertrichosis universalis, a general hairiness of body, has been described by Cascella in a woman with very strong sexual desires, who eventually became insane. Brantôme refers to a great lady known to him whose body was very hairy, and quotes a saying to the effect that hairy people are either rich or wanton; the lady in question, he adds, was both.
The Duke of Clarence had been noted, during the greater part of his career, for his roughness of manner, and many anecdotes of him were spread about which might have suited well the fun of some historian belonging to the school of Brantôme, or some compiler of memoirs after the fashion of Saint-Simon.
Such was his cynicism that he, the Abbot of Brantome, laughed in his sleeve at the horrible strife of Catholics and Huguenots in his own and neighbouring provinces. It is true that he fought at Jarnac against Coligny, but the admiral had met him in the court of the Valois before these wars, and knew him to be an abbe joyeux, without prejudices, if ever there was one.
Between the literature of Rabelais and Marot verging on their decline, and that of Ronsard and Montaigne reaching their zenith, Mary became a queen of poetry, only too happy never to have to wear another crown than that which Ronsard, Dubellay, Maison-Fleur, and Brantome placed daily on her head. But she was predestined.
Brantôme wrote: "This princess deserves great praise; in her married life she comported herself so wisely, chastely, and loyally toward the king that the nuptial tie which bound her to him always remained firm and indissoluble,—was never found loosened or undone,—even though the king liked and sometimes procured a change, according to the custom of the great who keep their full liberty."
In the midst of this unlucky race, Mary Stuart was the favourite of misfortune. As Brantome has said of her, "Whoever desires to write about this illustrious queen of Scotland has, in her, two very, large subjects, the one her life, the other her death," Brantome had known her on one of the most mournful occasions of her life at the moment when she was quitting France for Scotland.
I am seventy, and yet I have risen with the sun for more than sixty-five years. Have you any books?" "Only of a religious and sacred character, and a volume of the letters of the Order." Brother Jacques offered these without confidence. "Drivel! Find me something lively: Monsieur Brantôme, for instance. Surely Monsieur de Lauson has these memoirs in his collection." "I shall make inquiries."
A later work than any of his, the Novelle of Bandello, should be kept in mind for the writer was Bishop of Agen, and his work was translated into French as also the Dames Galantes of Brantome.
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