But he only showed it at a little distance; and then locked it up again, saying, 'This box and its contents shall be yours; but, in order that you may not produce me a crying girl or a puny creature, I promise to give you all on condition that, while the infant is being born, you sing a Gascon or Bearnais song; and I will be by.' He had lodged his daughter in a room in the second story of his castle of Pau; and his chamber was immediately beneath: he had given her, to guard her, one of his old _valets de chambre_, Cotin, whom he commanded never to stir from the princess night nor day, to serve her in her chamber, and to come and tell him the instant she was taken ill, and to wake him if he was in ever so deep a sleep.

Ten days after the princess's arrival at Pau, between twelve and one o'clock at night, the day of St.Lucie, 13th of December, 1553, the king was called by Cotin, and hurried to her chamber: she heard him coming, and began immediately singing the canticle, which the Bearnais women repeat when lying in: "Noustre Dame deou cap deou poun, Adjoudat me a d'aqueste hore," for at the end of every bridge in Gascony is an oratory, dedicated to the Virgin, called, _Our Lady at the end of the bridge_; and that over the Gave, which passes into Bearn from Jurancon, was famous for its miracles in favour of lying-in women.

The King of Navarre went on with the canticle; and had no sooner finished it than the prince was born who now reigns over France.

Then the good king, filled with great joy, put the chain of gold round the neck of the princess, and gave her the box containing the will, saying, 'This is your property, and this is mine;' at the same time taking the infant, which he wrapped in a piece of his robe, and carried away to his chamber.

The little prince came into the world without crying, and the first nourishment he had was from the hand of his grandfather; for, having taken a clove of garlic, he rubbed his little lips with it; then, in his golden cup, he presented him wine; _at the smell of which, the child having lifted up his head_, he put a drop in his mouth, which he swallowed very well.