"'Longuement en prison là furent, Et de confort moult petit urent. L'une ne l'autre ni ot aise; Mais toutes voies plus à mal aise Fut la royne de Navarre, En haut estoit; et à la terre La comtesse fut plus aval, Dont elle souffroit moins de mal, Car elle estoit plus chaudement. Ce fut justice voirement, Car la royne cause estoit, Du péché que elle avoit fait.' "From this prison they were transferred to the Château-Gaillard, a Normandy fortress. There, by order of Louis x., Margaret was strangled with a towel, according to some, and with her own hair, according to others. Blanche was spared and divorced, and took the veil at the Abbey of Maubisson, where she ended her life. But Jeanne was even more fortunate; she had been arrested, like her sisters-- "'Et, quand la comtesse ce vit, Hautement s'écria et dit: Por Dieu, oiez moi, sire Roi; Qui est qui parle contre moi? Je dis que je suis preude fame, Sans nul crisme, sans nul diffame; Et sé nul ne veut contre dire, Gentil Roy, je vous réquier. Sire, Que vous m'oiez en deffendant Sé nul ou nulle demandant Me fait chose de mauvestie, Mon cuer sens si pur, si traitie, Que bonnement me détiendrai, Ou tel champion baillerai, Qui bien saura mon droit deffendre, S'il ovus pies à mon gage prendre.' She succeeded, indeed, in justifying herself more or less, and her husband Philippe le Long took her back again. "FRÉDÉRICK GAILLARDET" There was nothing in all this particularly offensive to me; but I had been so greatly annoyed over the whole business, that I had promised myself, on the very first opportunity that presented itself, to be disagreeable to M. Gaillardet, and I did not intend to let this opportunity slip by. The occasion appeared and I seized it. I wrote, _ab irato,_ the following letter, and I did wrong. I cannot do more than confess it, I hope. "TO M. S.--HENRY BERTHOUD "MONSIEUR LE DIRECTEUR,--In turning over one of your back numbers, I chanced upon an article in which M. Gaillardet relates how he wrote his drama of _La Tour de Nesle._ I should never have believed that such details were of sufficiently lively an interest to the public; but, as M. Gaillardet thinks otherwise, I will submit to his opinion, and I will relate, in my turn, how I wrote mine.