In another letter written to the Marshal at the same period she says:
“If you listen to the King of Navarre, he will make you commit so many
disorders that he will ruin you.” (1) Perhaps these words should not
be taken literally; still they furnish cause for reflection when it
is remembered that they were written by a woman just turned forty
concerning her husband who was not yet thirty years old.
Margaret’s views upon love and the affinity of souls were somewhat
singular, but they indicate an elevated and generous nature. In several
passages of the _Heptameron_ she has expressed her opinion on these
matters, ardently defending the honour of her sex and condemning
those wives who show themselves indulgent as regards their husbands’
infidelities. (2) She blames those who sow dissension between husbands
and wives, leading them on to blows; (3) and when some one asked her
what she understood perfect love to be, she made answer, “I call perfect
lovers those who seek some perfection in the object of their love, be
it beauty, kindness, or good grace, tending to virtue, and who have such
high and honest hearts that they will not even for fear of death do base
things that honour and conscience blame.”