domestic life of the princes of that day, in those cases where it was governed by virtue and wisdom, than the picture afforded us of the court of St. Louis by the good Seneschal of Champagne.

The houses of all the great nobility, more especially in France, were in fact schools for chivalrous education. The castle of each lord was open for the reception of the sons of all his friends and relations; and we are assured that it would have been considered a great want of courtesy in any baron to refuse admission to the son of a noble friend into his household as a page. Thus the number of these youths in every large family was very great; for it is to be remarked that in almost all cases, parents, diffident of their own resolution and firmness, entrusted the care of their sons between seven and fourteen years of age to any distinguished person, upon whom they had claims either by friendship or by blood. The more celebrated was the knight or warrior, the more eagerly was his protection and instruction sought for the youth of his kinsmen and friends; and though his reputation might thus sometimes produce a severe tax upon him, yet many great objects were gained by attaching to his family and person a number of youths growing up to manhood, eager for military glory, and imbued with the principles which he himself had instilled.

The children of kings and sovereign princes indeed were generally, though not always, educated in their own court; and it is probable that Henry had

in view to pay the highest and most gratifying compliment that he could offer to Louis King of France, when he promised, some years before the period of which we now speak, to send his son Richard to be educated at the court of France. That he ever intended to keep that promise, I do not believe, inasmuch as many considerations withheld a king from yielding to a custom which might be most beneficial to the son of a vassal, but must have proved most dangerous in the case of a sovereign prince. In his own court, Richard could obtain more military knowledge than at that of France; and however much it might be Henry's policy to link the interests of Louis with his own by the bonds of alliance, it was quite contrary to all the dictates of wisdom and foresight to suffer the mind of his son to imbibe the maxims of a rival and often inimical country.

Almost all the sports of the youth of that day, as far as can be discovered, were of a military character; and we find that shooting with a bow, playing with the cudgels and back-sword, the casting heavy weights, climbing, leaping, riding, swimming, and other exercises of the kind, were commenced at a very early period, and gradually developed the powers of body, and strengthened the limbs, between the age at which the boy was taken from the hands of the women, and that at which he was first allowed to gird to his side the sword of manhood. During the period of their service as page, however, the youths remained much with the

women of the family, whose task it was still to instruct them in many things, though their power over them was at an end. The course of teaching indeed was somewhat changed; for though religion formed one of the branches of education which was entrusted to the ladies of the family, another subject of instruction, which in those days might well deserve the name of a science, was love.

It is not unworthy of remark, with what natural dexterity, if we may use the term, society as it advances adopts those measures best calculated to remedy the evils of the state from which it is emerging. From the licentious brutality of the early ages of feudalism arose the wonderful institution of chivalry; and the rude profession of arms, the constant presence of battle and danger, the frequent exposure of innocence and weakness to violence and wrong, gave birth to a system which placed the feebler portion of human nature under the strong protecting arm of opinion, by attaching the idea of honour to courtesy and love. Man felt the necessity of some humanising and softening power, and love was the first agent to which he could apply. But to render this agent effectual, it became necessary to subtleize and refine those feelings, which in a harsh and barbarous state, might but have given additional fierceness to the character of the times. Thus love was itself softened and purified in the first instance, in order to soften and purify the minds of those who adopted it as a part

of their calling and profession; and passion, hidden under various disguises, led into the human heart all the sweet charities and bland amenities of life. It is true, that in very many instances, at all periods, and with a lamentable frequency at an after period, the purer spirit was forgotten, and the coarser threw off her disguise, or only used it to adorn vice and licentiousness.. But the chivalrous love as then taught was pure and high, however the passions of man might mislead him in following it. Nothing could be too mystical, nothing could be too subtle or high-toned for that love which the young aspirant to chivalry was taught to feel for the lady whom he selected as the object of his devotion; and it was wisely arranged, that the course of systematic instruction which he received in so delicate a science should be given at an age when passion could not mingle with the lessons; thus ensuring that the ideas which he first received of such attachments should be those which were best calculated to purify, to elevate, and to refine..

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We must recollect, as Lord Lyttleton says in one of the finest parts of his work, that these things "had then a real existence. The gallantry of the knights to the ladies, which had an air of devotion; their presenting them with the prizes they had won in their tournaments, and even with the prisoners they had taken in war; their delivering of captives, especially of the fair sex, from castles where they were violently detained and injuriously treated; their pur

suing assassins or robbers, to punish or destroy them, without form of laws; and their obliging lords of castles to abolish evil customs which they had caused to be observed in their districts or manors; all these things, which are feigned of knights in the French and Spanish romances, were often done in real life, and arose out of the principles of knighthood itself, the disorders of the feudal government, and the spirit of the times."

Such also was the case in regard to the regular instructions in love given to the sons of noble families, while in the condition of page; and that love was, in all those lessons, so intimately combined with the thoughts of religion, of honour, of glory, and of everything that men were told to venerate or to covet, that those ideas became inseparable in the after life of the youths who received them. The common expressions of the day even, irreverend as they often are, show strikingly that this was the Such were the terms, "Honour to God and the ladies," "for the love of Heaven and his lady,” and many others which it is unnecessary to mention. Thus woman's corporeal weakness was placed under the shield of opinion, and the courtesy which was inculcated as a duty towards all ladies was very readily extended to many transactions between man and man.

case.

Besides the task of showing himself dexterous, graceful, and prompt in serving his lord, the page was instructed how to receive with civility and po