Note 1332 — Chapter XX
Reading edition
The story was certainly not invented by his mother, "comme il estoit sorty de sa dernière maladye aussy jaune que cuyvre, tout bouffy, deffiguré, bien fort petit et mince." No wonder that Leicester, while expressing the hope that the account might be false, hinted that it operated against the proposed marriage. La Mothe Fénélon to Charles IX., November 11, 1573, Correspondance diplomatique, v. 443.