This was not her only motive in going to Cauterets apparently, for in
a letter to Duke William of Cleves, her daughter’s husband, dated April
1541, she states that as she is suffering from a _caterre_ which “has
fallen upon half her neck,” and compels her to keep her bed, the doctors
have advised her to take “the natural baths,” and hope that she will
be cured by the end of May, providing she follows all their
prescriptions.(1)
1 A. de Ruble’s _Mariage de Jeanne d’ Albret_,
Paris, 1877, p. 86, et seq.
That this visit to Cauterets left a deep impression upon the mind of
Margaret is evidenced by the work upon which her literary fame rests.
The scene selected for the prologue of the _Heptameron_ is Cauterets
and the surrounding country; still it is evident that the book was not
commenced upon the occasion referred to, for in the prologue Margaret
alludes to historical events which took place in 1543 and 1544, and she
speaks of them as being of recent occurrence at her time of writing. Now
we know that in April 1544 she met her brother at Alençon, and made a
long stay in the duchy, and the probability is that she commenced the
_Heptameron_ at that time. It was the work of several years, penned in a
desultory style whilst Margaret was travelling about her northern duchy
or her southern kingdom. Like all persons of high station, she journeyed
in a litter, and Brantôme informs us that her equipage was a modest one,
for “she never had more than three baggage-mules and six for her two
litters, though she had two, three, or four chariots for her ladies.” (1)
Brantôme--who it may be mentioned was brought up at Margaret’s Court
under the care of his grandmother, Louise de Daillon, wife of Andrew de
Vivonne, Seneschal of Poitou--also states that the Queen composed the
_Heptameron_ mainly “in her litter, while journeying about, for she had
more important occupations when she was at home. I have thus heard it
related by my grandmother, who always went with her in her litter as her
lady of honour, and held the escritoire with which she wrote, and she
set them (the stories) down in writing as speedily and skilfully as if
they had been dictated to her, if not more so.” (2)