time, anxiety, hardship, nor even the baneful indulgence of her
misguided passions, had yet robbed her of her extraordinary beauty; and
it is consequently scarcely surprising that ere long the gallant soldier
to whose custody she was confided, surrendered at discretion, and laid
at her feet, not only his heart, but also the keys of her prison-house.

"Poor man!" enthusiastically exclaims Brantôme, her friend and
correspondent; "what did he expect to do? Did he think to retain as a
prisoner her who, by her eyes and her lovely countenance, could hold in
her chains and bonds all the rest of the world like galley-slaves?" [26]

Certain it is, that if the brave but susceptible marquis ever
contemplated such a result, he was destined to prove the fallacy of his
hopes; for so totally was he subjugated by the fascinations of the
captive Queen, that he even abandoned to her the command of the
fortress, which thenceforward acknowledged no authority save her own.

Marguerite had scarcely resided a year at Usson when the death of the
Duc d'Alençon deprived her of the last friend whom she possessed on
earth; and not even the security that she derived from the
impregnability of the fortress in which she had found an asylum could
preserve her from great and severe suffering. The castle, with its
triple ramparts, its wide moat, and its iron portcullis, might indeed
defy all human enemies, but it could not exclude famine; and during her
sojourn within its walls, which extended over a period of two-and-twenty
years, she was compelled to pawn her jewels, and to melt down her plate,
in order to provide food for the famishing garrison; while so utterly
destitute did she ultimately become, that she found herself driven to
appeal to the generosity of Elizabeth of Austria, the widow of her
brother Charles IX, who thenceforward supplied her necessities.