The two princes also agreed on the succors with which they should mutually supply each other, in case either of them was attacked by an enemy.[*] In consequence of this treaty, Mary was sent over to France with a splendid retinue; and Lewis met her at Abbeville, where the espousals were celebrated.

He was enchanted with the beauty, grace, and numerous accomplishments of the young princess; and being naturally of an amorous disposition, which his advanced age had not entirely cooled, he was seduced into such a course of gayety and pleasure, as proved very unsuitable to his declining state of health.[**] * Du Tillet.
** Brantome, Eloge de Louis XII.
{1515.} He died in less than three months after the marriage, to the extreme regret of the French nation, who, sensible of his tender concern for their welfare, gave him with one voice the honorable appellation of "father of his people." Francis, duke of Angouleme, a youth of one and twenty, who had married Lewis's eldest daughter, succeeded him on the throne; and, by his activity, valor, generosity, and other virtues, gave prognostics of a happy and glorious reign.

This young monarch had been extremely struck with the charms of the English princess; and even during his predecessor's lifetime, had paid her such assiduous court, as made some of his friends apprehend that he had entertained views of gallantry towards her.

But being warned that, by indulging this passion, he might probably exclude himself from the throne he forbore all further addresses; and even watched the young dowager with a very careful eye during the first months of her widowhood.

Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, was at that time in the court of France, the most comely personage of his time, and the most accomplished in all the exercises which were then thought to befit a courtier and a soldier.