9
Scarcely a week after my interview with Anjou, as October slid into November, a messenger arrived at the Hotel de Nevers bearing a message for me. Expecting a letter from the Queen or perhaps a note from my husband, I shut the door to my bedchamber and opened the missive. What I discovered caused me to pause. I beheld a poem, written by Phillip Desportes, a noted poet and a favorite of the Queen Mother. The poem told the tale of Eurylas and Olympus and carried the title of “A First Adventure.” I could not fail to notice that the two characters in the story were meant to represent Anjou and I, and despite myself, I felt a pride in knowing that someone had put our relationship into verse.
While the poem carried all the characteristics of Deportes, there was no doubt that Anjou himself h
