Details that appear in only one source — particularly in Belleforest, whose account is the most elaborated and the most clearly shaped by literary convention — should be treated with more caution.

The clandestine marriage he describes, for instance, is not confirmed by the other primary sources and may be a literary addition designed to make the story morally more acceptable.

The specific location of the island, the exact duration of the ordeal, the precise sequence of deaths, and the details of what happened to Marguerite after her return to France are all matters where the evidence is insufficient for confident conclusions.

This account has tried to signal those uncertainties rather than paper over them.