away. Then consoling myself with the reflection that soon I might not listen in vain for the tones I loved so much, I went on cheerfully. Now I present my work to you, trusting that the fruits of my travel will prove neither useless nor disagree able. CHAPTER II. Sir Peter de Craon attempts to murder the Constable ClissonKing Charles is seized with Madness. To tell my tale aright, it will be necessary to go back as far as the year 1392, thirty-seven years before my heroine, the ill-fated maid of Orleans, entered upon her noble task. King Charles the Sixth of France was then in the twelfth year of his reign, and the twenty-fifth of his age; and his kingdom was, for those troublesome times, in a prosperous condition. The English, although they still retained possession of Calais, Bayonne, and Bordeaux, and from time to time made expeditions into other parts of France, were too much taken up with disturbances at home to make regular war or attempt further conquest, and from no other quarter was any attack to be feared. Every thing looked favourable for France, and it was hoped that she would now at length recover from the miserable condition to which she had been reduced by her long war with England, under Edward III., and the insurrections and other internal disturbances which had set her own sons at variance. It was in the summer of this year (1392) that King Charles had undertaken an expedition to punish one of the most powerful lords of his kingdom, the Duke of Brittany, who had given shelter to a notorious criminal. I will tell you the story, that you may form an idea of the barbarous and savage state of a society whose members yet called themselves noble and gentle knights and courteous cavaliers, although I shall have even worse things to tell by and by. Peter de Craon, a gentleman of good family and fortune, had been held in great favour by the King of France and his brother, the Duke of Touraine, afterwards the Duke of Orleans; but falling into disgrace with them, in consequence of a cir |