ministres.'

And yet this violence to the favourites may have been among the services, qu'il rendit au roi, malgré ce prince même.

Page 60.-Led by a phrenzied female.

Yet in the preceding year, 1428, the English women had concerned themselves somewhat curiously in the affairs of their rulers. "There was one Mistris Stokes with divers others stout women of London, of good reckoning, well-apparelled, came openly to the upper parliament, and delivered letters to the duke of Glocester, and to the archbishops, and to the other lords there present, containing matter of rebuke and sharp reprehension of the duke of Glocester, because he would not deliver his wife Jaqueline out of her grievous imprisonment, being then held prisoner by the duke of Burgundy, suffering her there to remain so unkindly, and for his public keeping by him another adultresse, contrary to the law of God, and the honourable estate of matrimony."

Page 60.-Fix'd full her eye on Charles.
Of this I may say with Scudery-

"O merveille estonnante, et difficile à croire !-
Mais que nous rapportons sur la foy de l'Histoire."

Alaric, l. 2.

The matter (says De Serres) was found ridiculous both by the king and his councell, yet must they make some trial. The king takes upon him the habit of a countri

man to be disguised: this maid (being brought into the chamber) goes directly to the king in this attire, and salutes him with so modest a countenance, as if she had been bred up in court all her life. They telling her that she was mistaken, she assured them it was the king, although she had never seene him. She begins to deliver unto him this new charge, which, she sayes, she had received from the God of Heaven; so as she turned the eyes and minds of all men upon her.

Ce prince prit exprès ce jour-là un habit fort simple, et se mêla sans distinction dans la foule des courtizans La fille entra dans la chambre sans parôitre aucunement étonnée, et quoiqu' elle n' eût jamais vu le roi, elle lui adressa la parole, et lui dit d'un ton ferme, que Dieu l'envoyoit pour le secourir, pour faire lever le siège d'Orléans, et le conduire à Reims pour y être sacré. Elle l'assura que les Anglois seroient chassés du Royaume, et que s'ils ne le quittoient au plutôt, il leur en prendroit mal.

P. Daniel.

Page 61.- Crown thee the anointed king.

The anointing was a ceremony of much political and mystical importance. "King Henry III. of England, being desirous to know what was wrought in a king by his unction, consulted by letter about it with that great scholler of the age Robert Grossetest bishop of Lincoln, who answered him in confirmation. Quod autem in fine literæ vestræ nobis mandastis, videlicet quod inti

maremus quid unctionis sacramentum videatur adjicere regiæ dignitati, cum multi sint reges qui nullatenus unctionis munera decorentur, non est notræ modicitatis complere hoc. Tamen non ignoramus quod regalis in-' unctio signum est prerogativæ susceptionis septiformis doni sacratissimi pneumatis, quod septiformi munere tenetur rex inunctus præeminentius non unctus regibus omnes regias et regiminis sui actiones dirigere; ut videlicit non communiter sed eminentér et heroicè dono Timoris se primò, et deinceps, quantum in ipso est, suo regimini subjectos, ab omni cohibeat illicito; dono Pietatis defendat subveniat et subveniri faciat viduæ, pupillo, et generaliter omni oppresso; dono Scientiæ leges justas ad regnum justè regendum ponat, positas observet et observari faciat, erroneas destruat; dono Fortitudinis omnia regno adversantia repellat et pro salute reipublicæ mortem non timeat. Ad prædicta autem præcellenter agenda dono Concilii decoretur, quo artificialitèr et scientificè ordo hujus mundi sensibilis edocetur; deinde dono Intellectus, quo cœtus Angelici ordo dinoscitur. Tandem verò dono Sapientiæ, quo ad dilucidam cognitionem Dei pertingitur, ut ad exemplar ordinis mundi et ordinis angelici secundum leges æternas in æterna Dei ratione descriptas, quibus regit universitatem creaturæ, rempublicam sibi subjectam ordinabiliter regat tandem et ipse. Adjicit igitur regiæ dignitati unctionis sacramentum quod rex unctus præ cæteris in suo genere debet, ut prætactum est, ex septiformi spiritus munere, in omnibus suis regiminis actibus, virtutibus divinis et heroicis pollere.'

"And some other have conceived this anointing of such efficacy, that, as in baptisme all former sinnes are washt away, so also by this unction, as we see in that of Polyeuctus patriarch of Constantinople, who doubted not but that the emperor John Tzimisces was cleerd, before Heaven, of the death of Phocas, thro' his being anointed emperor.”

Selden's Titles of Honour. The legend of the Ampulla made this ceremony peculiarly important in France. I quote the miracle from Desmarests. Clovis is on his knees waiting to be anointed by St. Remigius :

Cependant le prelat attend les huiles saintes.

Un Diacre les porte, et fait un vain effort;
La foule impenetrable empesche son abord.
Du Pontife sacré la douce impatience,

Des mains et de la voix veut en vain qu'il s'avance.
Nul ne peut diviser, par la force des bras,
De tant de corps pressez l'immobile ramas.

Le prince humble, à genoux, languissoit dans l'attente,
Alors qu'une clarté paroist plus éclatante,
Esteint tous autres feux par sa vive splendeur,

Et répand dans le temple un divine odeur.
Dans un air lumineux une Colombe vole,
En son bec de coral tenant une fiole.

Elle apporte au prelat ce vase precieux,
Plein d'un baume sacré, rare present des Cieux.

Clovis. Guillermus Brito says that the devil brake the viol of oil which St. Remigius held in his hand ready to

anoint Clovis,and that the oil being so spilt, he obtained by prayer a supply of it from Heaven.

Ces paroles ainsi par elle dictes, la fist le roy remener honorablement en son logis, et assemble son grand conseil, au quel furent plusieurs prelats, chevaliers, escuyers et chefs de guerre, avecques aucuns docteurs en theologie en loix et en decret, qui tous ensemble adviserent qu'elle seroit interrogue par les docteurs, pour essayer si en elle se trouveroit evidente raison de pouvoir accomplir ce qu'elle disoit. Mais les docteurs la trouverent de tant honneste contenance, et tant sage en ses paroles, que leur revelation faicte on en tent tres grand conte.

Diverses interrogations luy furent faictes par plusieurs docteurs et autres gens de grand estat, a quoy elle respondit moult bien, et par especial a un docteur Jacobin, qui luy dist, qui si Dieu vouloit que les Anglois s'en allassent, qu'il ne falloit point de armes; a quoy elle respondit, qu'elle ne vouloit que peu de gens qui combattroient, et Dieu donneroit le victoire.

From the history of the siege of Orleans. Troyes. 1621.

In the Gesta Joanne Gallica of Valerandus Varanius, one of the counsellors makes a speech of seventy lines upon the wickedness of women, mentioning Helen, Beersheba, Semiramis, Dalilah, Messalina, &c. as examples. The council are influenced by his opinion, and