IARGARET OF PROVENCE. 83

oak, listened to their statements with attention and
patience. No ceremony was allowed to keep the
poor man from the kine’s justice-seat.

‘Whoever has a complaint to make,’ Louis was
wont to say, ‘let him now make it ;’ and when there
were several who wished to be heard, he would add,
‘My friends, be silent for awhile, and your causes
shall be despatched one after another.’

When Louis was in his nineteenth year, Blanche
of Castille recognised the expediency of uniting him
to a princess worthy of sharing the French throne,
-and bethought her of the family of Raymond
Berenger, Count of Provence, one of the most ac-
complished men in Europe, and whose countess,
Beatrice of Savoy, was even more accomplished
than her husband; Raymond and Beatrice had four
daughters, ai! remarkable for their wit and beauty,
and all destined to be queens. Of these four daugh-
ters, the eldest, Margaret of Provence, who was then
thirteen, was selected as the bride of Louis; and,
about two years before her younger sister, Eleanor,
was conducted to England to be espoused by King
Henry, Margaret arrived in Paris, and began to
figure as Queen of France. :

The two princesses of Provence who had the for-
tune to form such high alliances found themselves in
very different positions. Eleanor did just as she
pleased, ruled her husband, and acted as if every-
thing in England had been created for her gratifi-
eation. Margaret’s situation, though more safe, was
much less pleasant. In her husband’s palace she could
not boast of being in the enjoyment even of personal