"Ah, Marguerite! list to the bitter smart, That fills Renée of France her noble heart; And sisterlike some better aid impart Than hope alone. Thou knowest how she left her native shore, Leaving there friends and kin for evermore; But what in that strange land she doth endure Thou dost _not_ know. She sees not one, to whom she can complain; Her bright eye seeks her distant land in vain; And, as to quench all hope, the mountain chain Parts her and you." Renée was henceforward a person marked as "infected," and subjected to suspicion and severity accordingly; not because she held certain opinions, which, as has been before insisted on, were not yet condemned; but because she had been discovered to be the disciple and friend of Calvin. He at all events was condemned clearly enough; and to consort with him was overt heresy. And this happened in 1536. It is impossible to suppose, therefore, that Morato could have continued in the good graces of the court, had he been known to harbour beneath his roof a fugitive from the ecclesiastical authorities, as Celio Curione was in 1541, which must have been the epoch of his visit to Ferrara. Nor could the Duchess have ventured, unless in strict secrecy, to have received him, and sent him with her recommendations to Lucca. The palace of Ferrara was thus at this time essentially divided against itself. The Duke and the Duchess were pulling with might and main in diametrically opposite directions; he by open exercise of authority, every now and then irritated into violence: she by dissimulation and secret intelligences. And this was the state of that household, not pleasing in any home however royal, when our Olympia was called to become a member of it. CHAPTER III. How shall a Pope be saved? with the answer thereto.—How shall our Olympia be saved? To be taken into consideration in a subsequent chapter.