King Francis the First was once at a handsome and pleasant castle,
whither he had gone with a small following, both for the purpose of
hunting and in order to take some repose. With him in his train was a
certain Prince of Belhoste, (1) as worshipful, virtuous, discreet and
handsome a Prince as any at Court. The wife he had married did not
belong to a family of high rank, yet he loved her as dearly and treated
her as well as it were possible for a husband to do, and also trusted
in her. And when he was in love with anybody he never concealed it from
her, knowing that she had no other will than his own.
1 The Bibliophile Jacob surmises that this personage may be
one of the Italian grandees at that period in the service of
France, in which case the allusion may be to John
Caraccioli, Prince of Melphes, created a marshal of France
in 1544. Queen Margaret, however, makes no mention of her
Prince being a foreigner. "Belhoste" is of course a
fictitious name invented to replace that which the Prince
really bore, and admits of so many interpretations that its
meaning in the present instance cannot well be determined.
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