soul, troubled with sad memories, by kindly praise and pious flattery. But misfortune followed him to the last, and I believe, with his biographer, that the reproaches of his king cut to the quick, and dealt the fatal blow to a soul which held loyalty, truth, fidelity, honour, and courage the only virtues of a prince and a gentleman. All these he had, and Louis the Eleventh had none of them. Nevertheless, had Louis been Charles, France might have had a different history, and that 'trés crestien franc royaume' might well have become an appanage to the Dukedom of Burgundy. But what would have been the history of the world, had all rulers been honest, and all kings lovers of truth?

NOTE I.

The resemblance between the "Enfance et Jeunesse du Prince" described above, in which he visits the Court of Love, and the 'Court of Love' of Chaucer, is too striking to be accidental. Either they have a common origin, or Charles imitated Chaucer during his long captivity. This is very possible. The description of the Court is similar in both, and there are many close points of resemblance. Thus in Chaucer, we find among the statutes of Love, the following:

"The eighteenth statute, wholly to commande,
To plese thy lady, is, That thou eschewe
With sluttishness thyself for to offende:
Be jollife, fresh, and fete, with thinges newe,
Courtly with mann, this is al thy due,
Gentil of port, and loving cleanlinesse ;

This is the thing that liketh thy mistresse."

Compare this with Charles:

"Le premier est qu'il se tiengne jolis,
Car les dames les tienent à grant pris.
Le second est que très courtoisement
Soy maintendra et gracieusement."

NOTE II.

A graceful rendering into English verse of the lines 'J'ay fait l'obséque de Madame' has been made by Cary. I extract the two verses of which I have quoted the French.

"To make my lady's obsequies
My love a minster wrought,

And, in the chantry, service there
Was sung by doleful thought:
The tapers were of burning sighs,
That light and odour gave:

And sorrows, painted o'er with tears,
Enlumined her grave:

And round about, in quaintest guise,

Was carved, 'Within this tomb there lies

The fairest thing in mortal eyes.'

No more: no more: my heart doth faint

When I the life recal

Of her, who lived so free from taint,

So virtuous deemed by all:

That in herself was so complete,

I think that she was ta'en

By God to deck His paradise,

And with His saints to reign:

For well she doth become the skies,

Whom, while on earth, each one did prize,

The fairest thing in mortal eyes."

NOTE III.

Mention is made in the Paston Letters of the release of Charles. (Letter 3, from Robert Repps to John Paston):

"Tidings. The Duke of Orleans hath made his oath upon the sacrament, and used it, never for to bear arms against England, in the presence of the king and all the lords, except my lord of Gloucester... God give grace the said Lord of Orleans be true, for this same week shall he towards France."

CHAPTER III.

OLIVIER BASSELIN DE VIRE.

"Back and side go bare, go bare."

OLIVIER BASSELIN, a mighty drinker and a good singer, lived in the valley of the Vire in Normandy, somewhere between the years 1350 and 1450. He was, by profession, a Fulling-Miller, but one fears that the real occupation of his life was to drink. Tradition points at his wife as the working partner in the firm. But we have really no particulars about his life on which we can rely. His very existence has been disputed, and all we know of him is from a song by Le Houx, in which, a hundred years after Olivier was gathered to his fathers, he collects all the traditions that remained of him. And we gather from his songs certain small particulars which relate to his habits and preferences. Thus, we learn that he preferred wine of Orleans to any other, when he could get it; that he drank cider when he could not get wine, and perry when he could not get cider. And his chief amusement in life was to sing the praises of good drink. Many a lusty song he must have trolled out in his tavern, to the delight of the rustics, and the edification

G

;

of the village. There remain to this day upwards of sixty. Of his life we can only hesitatingly say, and with some diffidence, that his wife objected to his following the bent of his own inclinations-unreasonably, as some may think; that he became very poor; that his relations had finally to interfere and to sequestrate, alienate, or put into safe keeping the fulling-mill-if not the person-of Olivier Basselin and that the English wrought him great shame, if not actual deprivation of life. Thus much of his story. Of his personal appearance but one trait remains. Popular history, which loves to store in its memory such facts as Cæsar's baldness, Edward's long legs, and Richard's hump, has remembered only of Olivier Basselin, his nose. Even this, so fleeting is the memory of men, only because he sings of it himself. And since this nose, so fat, so fair, so comely, so glowing, so Bardolphian, beaming upon us in such Anacreontic joviality through four long centuries, is all that remains in our minds to mark the manner of the man, hear what the owner says of it himself:

"Beau nez! dont les rubis ont consté mainte pipe

De vin blanc et clairet:

Et duquel la couleur richement participe
Du rouge et violet.

Gros nez! qui te regarde à travers un grand verre
Te juge encor plus beau :

Tu ne resembles point au nez de quelque hère
Qui ne boit que de l'eau.

*Un coq d'Inde sa gorge à toy semblable porte;

Combien de riches gens

N'ont pas si riche nez! Pour te peindre en la sorte

Il faut beaucoup de temps."

Query. Were turkeys known in the time of Olivier Basselin ? If not, alas! the song is not genuine. But the point is disputed.