partie 3

.; Du Cange, Twenty-first Dissertation on Joinville; Glossary,

Arma Mutare, Companionship in weal and woe sanctioned by religious solemnities, still exists among the Albanians and other people of the eastern shore of the Adriatic. The custom is wrought into a very interesting story in the tale of Anastasius, vol. i. c. 7.

[134] Juv. des Ursins anno 1411. Vraye fraternité et compagnie d'armes, is the frequent expression in old writers for this chivalric union.

[135] Kennet's Parochial Antiquities, p. 57. cited in Henry's History of England, vol. iii. p. 360. 4to.

[136] The romance of Amys and Amylion. It is abridged by Mr. Ellis in the third volume of his Specimens of early English Metrical Romances, and inserted at length by Mr. Weber in the second volume of his collection. The reader may be amused to learn that the mother of the children was so complaisant to her husband as to approve of his having cut their little throats.

"O lef lief! she said tho, God may send us children mo! Of them have thou no care. And if it were at my heart's root, For to bring thy brother boot, My life I would not spare. There shall no man our children sene, For to morrow they shall buried ben, As they fairly dead were. Thus that lady, fair and bright, Comforted her lord with her might, As ye may understand Sin[A] they went both right To Sir Amylion, that gentle knight, That ever was fre to fonde[B] When Sir Amylion awaked tho, All his foulehead away was go Through grace of God's Son. Then was he as fair a man As ever he was ere than Since he was been in londe."

The conclusion of the story shows the belief of the writer that heaven approved of such sacrifices to friendship.

"Then were they all blithe, Their joy could no man kithe, They thanked God that day. As ye may at me liste and lythe.[C] Into the chamber they went swythe.[D] Ther as the children lay. Without wern[E], without wound, All whole the children there they found, And lay together in play. For joy they went there, they stood And thanked God with mild mode Their care was all away."

[A] After.

[B] That ever could be met with.

[C] Now you must listen to me.

[D] Quickly.

[E] Scar.

[137] It may be as well to notice that the barriers of a town, or its outer fortification, are described by Froissart as being grated pallisades, the grates being about half a foot wide.

[138] The remainder of this knight's story should be told, although it does not relate to the matter of the text. "In the suburbs he had a sore encounter, for, as he passed on the pavement, he found before him a bocher, a big man, who had well seen this knight pass by, and he held in his hands a sharp heavy axe, with a long point; and as the knight returned, and took no heed, this bocher came on his side and gave him such a stroke between the neck and shoulders, that he fell upon his horse, and yet he recovered; and then the bocher struck him again, so that the axe entered into his body, so that, for pain, the knight fell to the earth, and his horse ran away, and came to the squire who abode for his master at the streets; and so the squire took the horse, and had great marvel what was become of his master, for he had seen him ride to the barriers, and strike thereat with his glaive, and return again. Then he rode a little forth thitherward, and anon he saw his master laying upon the earth between four men, who were striking him as they would strike an anvil. And then the squire was so affrighted he durst not go farther, for he saw he could not help his master. Therefore he returned as fast as he might; so there the said knight was slain. And the knights that were at the gate caused him to be buried in holy ground." Lord Berners's Froissart, c. 281.

[139] Froissart, vol. i. c. 278.

[140] Froissart, c. 281.; Gray's Descent of Odin.; Herbert's Icelandic Translations, p. 39; Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. 1. p. 45.

[141] Froissart c. 384.

[142] Froissart, c. 28. "Et si avoit entre eux plusieurs jeunes bacheliers, qui avoient chacun un oeil couvert de drap, à fin qu'ils n'en puissent veoir; et disoit on que ceux là avoient voué, entre dames de leur pais, que jamais ne verroient que d'un oeil jusques à ce qu'ils auroient fait aucunes prouesses de leur corps en royaume de France." The disposition of knights to make vows was an excellent subject for Cervantes' raillery. "Tell her," continued I, (Don Quixote) "when she least expects it, she will come to hear how I made an oath, as the Marquis of Mantua did, when he found his nephew Baldwin ready to expire on the mountains, never to eat upon a table-cloth, and several other particulars, which he swore to observe, till he had revenged his death. So in the like solemn manner will I swear, never to desist from traversing the habitable globe, and ranging through all the seven parts of the world, more indefatigably than ever was done by Prince Pedro of Portugal, till I have freed her from her enchantment." Don Quixote,