Pamiers, (at each of which he made some residence,) he pursued his travels towards the court of Gaston Phoebus, Count de Foix. During the latter part of this expedition he had for his companion a worthy knight of Foix, by name Espaing du Lyon, with whom he accidentally became acquainted; and as Sir Espaing had served in all the wars of Gascony, and was equally inquisitive and communicative with Froissart himself, our historian profited of every moment, by treasuring up his details during the day, and exploring with him whatever was worth seeing at the places where they rested for the night. The account of this journey and of his reception at the court of Ortez, forms one of the most interesting portions of his history.

We will give Froissart's own account of his arrival and introduction to the count, as strongly characteristic of himself and of his work. The translation is from the edition of Denis Sauvage in folio, 1574; vol. iii. p. 26. We have rendered it as close as possible to the original, in order the more strongly to illustrate the observations we shall have to make by and by on Mr. Johnes' version.

"The next morning we departed, and came to dinner at Montgerbel: and then we mounted, and drank a cup at Ercie, and then came to Ortais at the hour of sun-set. The knight went to his hôtel, and I to the hôtel de la Lune, to a squire's of the count's named Ernauton du Pin, who received me right joyfully because I was a Frenchman. Sir Espaing du Lyon (in whose company I was come) went up to the castle to speak to the count of his own affairs, and found him in his gallery for at that hour, or a little sooner, he had dined; for the custom of the Count of Foix is such, or then was, (and he had always held it from his infancy) that he arose at high noon and supped at midnight. The knight said to him that I was arrived. I was immediately sent for to my hôtel, for he was, or is, that lord of all the world who most willingly saw strangers to hear the news. When he saw me, he made me good cheer, and retained me of his household; where I was more than twelve weeks, and my horses were well dressed, and in all other things taken care of."

The Count Gaston de Foix of whom I speak,' he says soon after, at that time that I was with him, was about 59 years of age, and I say to you that I have in my time seen many knights, kings, princes, and others; but I never saw any one who was so well limbed, of so fair a form, or so fair a mien, viaire, bel, sanguin, and with such laughing and amorous eyes, which way soever it pleased him to look. In all things he was so very perfect that one could not too much praise him. He loved that which he ought to love, and hated that which he ought to hate. A wise knight he was, and of lofty enterprise, and

He

full of good counsel. He never had any mecreant with him. He was preudhomme in government. He said plenty of prayers. Every day a nocturne of the Psalter, hours of Nôtre Dame, of the Holy Ghost, of the cross, and vigils of the dead. Every day he caused five florins in small coin to be given for love of God, and alms at his gate to all people. He was bounteous and courteous in giving, and knew full well how to take where it belonged to him, and remit where he had confidence (ou il affieroit-qu :) He loved dogs above all animals, and gladly found himself, both summer and winter, a field in the chace. Besides, foolish violence, and foolish generosity he loved not; and he would know every month what became of his own, He took, in his own country, to receive his rents, and his people to serve and administer, notable men to the number of twelve, and every two months he was served by two of them in his said office of receipts, and at the end of every two months he changed the former two for two others in rotation. He made the most special man, him in whom he most trusted, his comptroller; and to him all the rest accounted and rendered up their reckonings; and that same comptroller accounted to the Count of Foix by rolls and by written books, and left his reckoning before the said count. He had cer tain coffers in his chamber, whence, sometimes, he caused money to be taken out to give to knights, lords, and squires, when they came before him (for no man ever departed from him without some present) and always he multiplied his treasure, to await the adventures and fortunes that, he doubted, may ensue. was cognisable and accessible to all people, and sweetly and lovingly spoke to them. He was short in his counsels and in his replies. He had four clerks, secretaries, to write and answer letters, and well it behoved these four clerks to be ready when he should come forth from his closet. ***** In such a state as I tell you lived the Count of Foix; and when he came forth from his chamber at midnight to sup in his hall, before him he had twelve torches lighted which twelve pages carried: and those twelve torches were held before his table,which gave a great light in the hall. The which hall was full of knights and squires, and always were there plenty of tables dressed out to sup such as sup would. No man spoke to him at his table if he did not address him. He ate, customarily, plenty of wild fowl, especially the wings and thighs, and, the next morning, ate and drank but little. He took great delight in the songs of minstrels, for well was he acquainted with them. He liked to make his clerks sing songs, rondeaux, and virelets. He sate at table about two hours, and also saw strange entremets between whiles, and, after seeing them, sent them to the tables of the knights and squires. Briefly, all things considered and advised, before I came to his court, I had been in many courts of kings, of dukes, of princes, of counts, and of high ladies; but never was I yet in any which better pleased me, nor which was more enlivened by deeds of arms, than was that of the Count of Foix. One saw, in hall, in chamber, and in court, nights and squi. es of honour, going to and fro, and one heard

them discoursing about arms and loves. All honour was therein found. All news, of whatever country or whatever kingdom it might be, therein one might learn; for out of all countries, for sake of the lord's high worth, did men come thither. There was I informed of the greater part of the deeds of arms that had taken place in Spain, in Portugal, in Arragon, in Navarre, in England, in Scotland, and on the frontiers and boundaries of Languedoc. For I saw come before the count, during the time that I sojourned there, knights and squires from all nations.'

His residence at this court, the manners of which seem to have been so completely after his own heart, was, as may be expected, of long duration. We are only left to wonder how he could ever have quitted so agreeable an abode. But his natural curiosity and restlessness of inquiry could not be satisfied by mere relations, though from eye-witnesses, and of the most celebrated adventures of his age. The marriage of the Countess of Boulogne with the Duke de Berri (we always find Froissairt in the suite of a marriage or a public festival) drew him to Avignon, where a robbery was committed on him, which he celebrated in a poem made on the occasion; and it is to that poem we are indebted for the principal part of the history of his life.

We find our historian soon afterwards pursuing his travels with an ardour and activity which growing years seem rather to have increased than lessened. Twice in Auvergne, three times at Paris, once at the extremity of Languedoc, in Cambresis, in Hainault, Holland, and Picardy, at Bruges, Sluys, and in Zealand, and finally, once again in his own country; all these journies, undertaken for no visible end but the thirst for novelty and information, seem to have occupied the three succeeding years of his life.

He was present (of course) at the magnificent entry of Queen Isabella, and at all the feasts and tournaments which that splendid occasion produced at Paris. The mere intelligence that a Portuguese knight, intimately connected with the affairs of the court of Lisbon, with which Froissart himself was then but obscurely acquainted, was in Zealand, on his road to Prussia, where he was to join the Crusade against the Infidels, prompted him to undertake an immediate voy age to Middleburg, and his zeal was requited by the acquisition of all the intelligence he wanted.

At length, in 1995, after a twenty-seven years absence, he appears once more in England, and at the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket. Here he saw King Richard for the first time, and here he obtained all the information he has not failed to communicate, of the Irish expedition,

His stay in England did not exceed three or four months, but his history is continued to a later period. It concludes with the death of Richard in the year 1399. Little is known concerning him for these last years, and even at the period at which his active and useful life came to a termination, it is involved in so much uncertainty that some writers have prolonged it to the year 1420, while others (with much more apparent probability) suppose that he died not long after the period at which his history ends.

The valuable Memoir, of which we have here given an abridgment, is followed by an Essay on the Works of Froissart, and a Criticism on his History, both by the same author, and to these are added, Some Observations on his Poetry,' by an anonymous writer in the 14th volume of the Academie des Inscriptions. It is needless to observe on the propriety of these additions which Mr. Johnes has made to this new edition of his work. That which might have been most easily dispensed with is the last. Froissart, as a poet, does not deserve the attention of posterity. Yet we by no means object to the insertion of a piece, which, though of very inferior interest, perhaps tends to complete the portrait of the writer. One very useful addition may yet be made, which the translator bas given us some reason to expect, and in which we hope he will not disappoint us, an accurate Chronological Table, to supply that which every reader must have remarked as the principal deficiency in this most valuable work, an attention to the arrangements both of time and place, The portrait, which even the short account we have given of Froissart's life is sufficient to present of the historian, is an accurate picture of the history itself. The reader who sets out, like the author, with a mind eager for information, and impatient for novelty, will find an ample field for the gratification of his passion in the wide world that lies before him. He will be carried through wilds and woods, over extended campaigns, and into populous cities. He will carouse at baronial banquets, and join in the pomp of royal marriages; he will enter lists with the flower of chivalry, and break his lance in honour of the fairest dame of France or England,

But while he is in expectation of the glorious and hardearned meed of victory, and dreaming only of courtly joys, the tilt, the dance, and the banquet,

Armes, amous, deduit, joye, et plaisance;

he will, all of a sudden, be borne away to the front of a battle, and hear the trumpet sound,' and see the banners advance,' and the battalion marching in regular array over hill and dale,' armed with banners flying, by moonlight; so that it will be a beautiful sight to see the gallant array.' Then the blast of war will blow in his ears,' and' such a blasting and noise with horns, that it will seem as if all the great devils from hell were come there.' Then will the English archers advance with their cross-bows presented, and shoot their arrows with such force and quickness, that it will seem as if it snowed.' The knights, armed cap-a-pie, will engage, sword in hand, in the thickest of the fight; the general watch-words of the contending armies, and the particular war-cries of each opposing lord, will be heard in confused and irregular shouts throughout the field, and Montjoye St. Denis,' or St. George for Guienne,' will be alternately triumphant as the English lion or the fleur de lys may be exalted or depressed,

He will next proceed to the melancholy office of numbering the slain, but will hardly have formed his calculation on the probable consequences of the bloody scene he has just witnessed, before he will find himself quietly riding with some courteous and communicative companion, along a well-frequented road, where he will duly stop to bate at every inn, and lie by during the heat of the day by the side of a running stream, under the shade of a friendly grove, on a bank of most refreshing verdure, and, untying his wallet, and uncorking his wine-flask, enjoy the sweets of repose, good-cheer and conversation combined together, like Gil Blas, with his merry companions, Don Raphael and

Ambrose de Lamela.

Lastly, he will sit down with the good curate of Lestines, or with the priest, canon, and treasurer of the collegiate church of Chimay, to think over what he has heard, seen, and acted; and the result of his recollections will be an unconnected mass of most useful and excellent information, and a confused picture of most lively and amusing imagery.

It will not be amiss, after this general illustration of the work, to remark on some of Froissart's peculiar excellencies, before we proceed to any observations on the translation before us. In description he is excelled by no historian ancient or modern. Perhaps we may even venture to assert that he excels them all; for his are not merely pictures of particular places or events, (though in those also, when he attempts thein, he is excellent) but his whole work