It seems, however, that although unwilling to grant him any favour, the fair Azalais was extremely jealous of the poet’s praise. This, at least, would appear from an anecdote in the manuscript. Count Barral had two sisters residing at his court, with whom Folquet lived on terms of intimate friendship. But his mistress did not believe in Platonic relations between troubadours and young ladies at court. Her jealousy fixed on one of her sisters-in-law, the lady Laura, of whom she declared Folquet to be enamoured. She refused to see her lover again, ‘and would have no more of his prayers and fine words,’ as the biographer naïvely adds. Folquet was in despair; ‘he left off singing and laughing, for he had lost the lady whom he loved more than the whole world for one with whom he had no connection beyond courtesy.’ This assertion of the manuscript deserves our belief. It is quite possible, and indeed seems indicated by a passage in one of his songs, that Folquet affected a tender feeling for Laura in order to divert the attention of spies, but his real passion was all for Azalais. His songs and his conduct leave no doubt on the subject. It is an open question whether the intercession of a noble lady sought by Folquet obtained him the full pardon of his mistress. But certain it is that he remained invariably attached to her through good and evil report. For misfortune was in store for the countess. Barral, for some reason or other, got tired of his wife, obtained an invalidation of his marriage, and wedded another lady. Folquet’s position was difficult. The count was his oldest friend and protector, whom he loved sincerely, as is proved by the beautiful elegy on his death, which ensued soon afterwards. But no considerations of worldly prospects or friendship could shake his allegiance to the lady of his love. We possess songs dedicated to her subsequent to the separation, in one of which, written the year after Barral’s decease, the praise of the count is, curiously enough, addressed to his divorced widow. Perhaps the great peacemaker Death had taken the sting from her resentment, and the pair loved to linger over the memory of the departed.