The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-07-23
MARGARET OF ANJOU.
by MISS LYDIA sTRAwN.

bitter anguish! Would you look upon such
a lifes Then turn back upon their hinges the
heavy doors of four and a quarter centuries
and behold lady, who though in the first
bloom of womanhood, is an idolized wife, the
first lady In brilliant court, and the queen OF
mighty nation. Mark well the proud curve
the delicate lips, the star.lke glory of the dark
eyes, the intellectual brow, the lustrous hair
bound by glittering diamonds, and wonder II
any gift of God or man can more richly dow
er the pearl of France, borne by the sea waves
u an English throne. Yet even now over the
haughtily beautiful face is the faint shadow
of coming heartache, for Margaret of Anjou
found beneath the foam of lifc's morning an
ever deepening, lifelong agony. She was a
woman, but her woman's heart was forced to
steel itself for the herO's work, and her little
woman's hand held the standard of Lancaster,
and directed the charge of armies. She was
a queen, but the crown pressed her weary
brow with the sharpness of dagger. She
was q wife, but her changeless. devoted love
could not give the statesman's skill to her
weak husband or save him from the assassin s
robed darling OF her heart came to light the
battle fires, and the baby fingers, resting trust,
fully on her breast, only strewed her path
with thorns So strangely did this real life
blend all the Joy and sorrow of being. Mar.
garets existence was an electric light, bril-
liant in Its noontlde splendor, yet dying into
darkness, as it also flashed from the darkness.
Born at Ponta. Mousson, March 90, 1925,
she was the youngest, fairest, and most gifted
child of Rene, Of Anjou, and Isabella, of Lor-
raine. Rene was younger son of the royal
house Of Anjou. A prince IN name, crown
less king, mildly good, annually weak, during
all the later years of his sad troubled life he
wandered from city to city, homeless and
alone; sometimes warming himself by walk
ing to and fro on the sunny side of a street,
yet finding in art and music solace. Isabella
was a true daughter of Charlcmagne, highly
educated spirited and beautiful, the only child
of Duke Charles, and the heiress to the broad
fields of sunny Lorraine. Welded in child
hood, the little pair went to reside in the grand
old castle of Ponta Mousson. In 1927, the
second year of Margaret's life, a dark cloud
gathered over the happy home. Isabella's
uncle looked with envious eyes upon her
princely inheritance, and IN the intense mean.
ness of small soul resolved that Lorraine
was too noble and valuable fief to descend IN
the family on the spindle side.' The resolve
was carried into execution, and as Rene and
Isabella did not SO lightly regard their just
rights, war followed.
At the battle of Bulguevilc, Rene inspired
by the wrongs of his lovely wife, fought with
desperate bravery, but was captured while
blinded by his own streaming blood To lsa'
bella, waiting in the agony of suspense at
Nancy, heralds carried the tidings of defeat
and the centuries, have borne down to us the
low, agonized cry of the broken heart, my
husband is killed." uttered while unconscious
of his fate, and with her hot tears falling over
Margarets baby face.
Isabella's friends urged her to prosecute the
that her nearest and dearest was in the power
of the victor, and what to her deep love was
fair Lorraine with Its smiling plains and cas-
tied sleeps beside her husband? SO she bow
ed her proud head meekly to her unjust uncle,
and begged him that her beloved one might
be restored to her 1t was no longer IN An
thongs power to grant his nlece's request for
he had given Rene to the custody of the Duke
of Burgundy. Years were numbered with the
things that were, and his children sold IN the
matrimonial market, before Rene obtained his
liberty by the payment of large ransom At
tempting to make good his claim to the crown
of Sicily, bequeathed to him by his brother,
Rene found the steps of the new throne paved
with sword points, and henceforth his kingly
title was like apples of Sodom, far to the eye
ashes to the taste
BY conquest, England added AnJou and
Lorraine to the national diadcm, and while
Rene wandered over France, finding no con
tinuing city in the land Of his birth, Isabella
found shelter in the homes of her royal kin
bred. She had lost her crown, but her rarest
jewel, her Margaret, was still her own. Under
the careful eye of the fond, ambitious mother,
all the treasures of knowledge which that age
could give to woman, were opened to the
quick, fertile mind OF the child, and she bios.
somed into girlhood leader of many by the
inherent right of her own dignity and grace.
perchancc il that mother IN the holy hush of
twilight, had taught her to repeat that oldest
and sweetest of all ethical rules, the Savior's
golden rule, the stain of cruelty would never
have rested upon Margaret's name. We
should have missed the terrible scenes follow.
ing the battle Of Wakefield. With the rapid
ty of a gorgeous tropical blossom, Margarets
being untolded its many-colored, glowing
leaves of mind, character, and charming eX-
81, nj Oh ,ln ii Ia