that a painter could not have imitated them with perfect accuracy. As if preparing himself for a swifter movement, he disdained to be checked by his golden curb, and by the alternate change of his feet he seemed at one time to move forward on his hind, at another on his fore legs. The king bounded into his saddle, glittering with gold spangles interspersed with red, while on the hinder part two small lions of gold were turned towards each other with their mouths open, and one pointed to the other on each of the fore legs, as if stretched out to devour. The king's feet were decorated with golden spurs, and he was clothed in a vest of rose-coloured stuff, ornamented with rows of crescents of solid silver, like orbs of the sun shining in thick profusion. He was girded with a sword of proved metal, with a handle of gold and a woven belt, and the mouth of the scabbard was fastened with silver. On his head he wore a hat of scarlet, ornamented with the shapes of various birds and beasts worked with the hand, and sown in with orfray work by the needle. He carried a staff in his hand, and the manner of his bearing it proved him to be a soldier of the highest order, and afforded the greatest gratification to all who saw him. Chronicle of the Crusades, p. 191.

RICHARD'S COMBAT WITH SALADIN.

Saladin being enabled, by the withdrawal of Philip's forces, to meet his enemy once more in the field, sent a messenger to offer battle; and at the same time a challenge to King Richard to meet him in single combat in front of the two armies, for the purpose of deciding their respective pretensions, and of ascertaining whether Jesus or Jupiter was the most powerful divinity. The challenge was accompanied by the offer of a war-horse, far superior in strength and activity to Favel of Cyprus or Lyard of Prys (the favourite horses of Richard), which it was proposed he should

ride on the occasion.

It seems that a necromancer, a "noble clerk," had conjured two "strong fiends of the air" into the likeness of a mare and her colt; and that the younger devil had received instructions to kneel down and suck his dam as often as she, by neighing, should give him a signal for that purpose. Such an attitude could not but prove very inconvenient to his rider, who would thus be nearly at the mercy of his antagonist; and it was hoped that Saladin, being mounted on the mare, would obtain an easy victory. Richard, ignorant of this conspiracy against his life and honour, readily accepted all the conditions; the horse was sent on the morning of the battle to the Christian camp; and the hopes of the fiend and of the sultan seemed on the point of being realised. But during the preceeding night an angel had appeared to the Christian hero, had related the machinations of the Saracens, had given him full instructions for the management of his diabolical steed, and had presented to him a spear head, which no armour, however enchanted, was able to resist. At the first dawn of day the hostile armies began to form in order of battle. That of the Saracens

occupying an extent of ten miles in front, threatened to surround the inferior forces of the Christians. Richard, however, perfectly indifferent about the numbers of the infidels, pointed them out to his troops as a multitude of victims whom Heaven had destined to sacrifice; and calling for his arms and horse, immediately prepared for battle. The fiend horse being led forth, the king, in conformity with the angel's instructions, conjured him in the name of the Trinity, to submit to his guidance in the battle; and the fiend having shaken his head in token of acquiescence, he ordered that the creature's ears should be stopped with wax, and that he should be caparisoned in the manner prescribed by the messenger of Heaven. The reins of his bridle, the crupper, the girths, and the peytrel (poitrail breast plate), were of steel chain, the saddle bows were of iron, and supported by two hooks, by which was fixed a ponderous beam of wood, forty feet in length, lying across the horse's mane, and intended to bear down at every evolution of the animal, whatever enemies might attempt to oppose his progress. From the lower part of the saddle-bows were suspended on one side the formidable battle-axe, always so fatal to the Saracens, and on the other a brazen club.

The king arrayed in splints of steel, which were again covered by a complete coat of mail; his helmet surmounted by the dove perching on a cross, the symbol of the Holy Ghost, his shield emblazoned with three leopards on his shoulder, and bearing in his hand the spear, on whose point was engraven the holy name of God, only waited till the terms of the battle between himself and Saladin should be publicly read and assented to by both parties, and then suddenly springing into the saddle, set spurs to his steed, and flew with the rapidity of lightning to the encounter. Saladin, throwing his shield before him, rushed to the charge with equal impetuosity; but, as he trusted principally to his mare, he was unwilling to encumber himself with a spear, and only bore in his hand a broad scymitar, with which he proposed to cut off the head of his prostrate enemy. The mare, indeed, exerted herself to the utmost. She shook with violence the numberless bells with which her bridle and housings were completely covered, and neighed with all her might; but the colt fiend, whose ears were closely stopped, was insensible to a noise which almost deafened both armies. Far from relaxing, he seemed to increase his speed, and met his unfortunate dam with a shock she was not at all prepared to resist. Her girth and bridle instantly burst; she rolled on the plain. At the same time the spear of Richard passed through the serpent painted on the sultan's shield, and threw him with his heels in the air to a distance on the plain. Richard, without further troubling himself about the sultan or his mare, rode on full speed into the Saracen phalanx; overset with his beam twenty unbelievers on each side of his saddle; and whirling his battleaxe, beheaded or clove to the chine every enemy within his reach. The Earl of Salisbury, Doyley, Tourneham, and his other brave knights closely followed, and assisted in dissipating such of the

enemy as ventured to resist; and Philip, with his Frenchmen, valiantly assailed the fugitives. The rout soon became general. In the meantime the citizens of Babylon, seeing from their walls the defeat of their countrymen, opened their gates to the victors; and Saladin, when recovered from his fall, seeing that all was lost, set spurs to his mare, and escaped into a thick wood, where Richard, encumbered by his beam, was unable to follow him. Of the inhabitants of Babylon the greater number consented to be baptised. Those who refused were, as usual, put to the sword; and the riches found in the town were distributed among the conquerors, who, after a fortnight spent in feasts and rejicing, proceeded on their march towards Jerusalem.

Ellis's Early English Metrical Romances, 1.. 329.

THE TROUBADOURS.

The origin of modern literature is to be found among the provincial poets. The troubadours awakened Europe from its ignorance and lethargy, they re-animated the minds of men, and by amusing, they led them to think, to compose, and to judge. William IX., Count of Poitou and of Aquitaine, is recorded as the first Provençal poet; Richard Coeur de Lion was also greatly renowned for his proficiency as a musician and romancist; and at the time of the crusades so general was the profession of minstrelsy, that Europe swarmed with troubadours of all classes, from the prince to the jongleur, whose spirit-stirring lays might be heard on every hand, in the castle-hall, the village-green, and the battlefield, depicting in irregular numbers the glories of war, the powers of love, and the praises of beauty.

Memoirs of Ancient Chivalry, p. 18.

ORIGIN OF MINSTRELS.

The first attempts at composition among all barbarous nations are ever found to be poetry and song. The praises of their gods, and the achievements of their heroes, are usually chaunted at their festival meetings. These are the first rudiments of history. It is in this manner that the savages of North America preserve the memory of past events; and the same method is known to have prevailed among our Saxon ancestors. The Ancient Britons had their bards, and the gothic nations their scalds, whose business it was to record the victories of their warriors, and the genealogies of their princes, in a kind of popular songs, which were committed to memory, and delivered down from one reciter to another. After letters began to prevail, and history assumed a more stable form, by being committed to plain simple prose, these songs of the bards and scalds began to be more amusing than useful, and in proportion as it became their business chiefly to entertain and delight, they gave more and more into embellishment, and set off their recitals with such marvellous fictions as were calculated to captivate gross and ignorant minds. Thus began stories of adventures with

giants, and dragons, and witches, and enchanters, and all the monstrous extravagances of wild imagination, unguided by judgment, and uncorrected by art. *

Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. iii., p. 11.

ROMANCE OF COEUR DE LION.

Richard, in his return from the Holy Land, having been discovered in the habit of a "palmer in Almayne," and apprehended as a spy, was by the king thrown into prison. Wardrewe, the king's son, hearing of Richard's great strength, desires the jailor to let him have a sight of his prisoners; Richard being the foremost, Wardrewe asks him "if he dare stand a buffet from his hand?" and that on the morrow he shall return him another. Richard consents, and receives a blow which staggers him. On the morrow, having previously waxed his hands, he waits his antagonist's arrival. Wardrewe accordingly, proceeds the story, "held forth as a trewe man," and Richard gave him such a blow on the cheek as broke his jaw-bone and killed him on the spot. The king, to revenge the death of his son, orders, by the advice of one Eldrede, that a lion, kept purposely from food, should be turned loose upon Richard; but the king's daughter, having fallen in love with him, tells him of her father's resolution, and, at his request, procures him forty ells of white silk "kerchers and here the description of the combat begins :—

The kever-chefes he toke on honde,
And aboute his arme he wonde;
And thought in that ylke while,
To slee the lyon with some gyle,
And syngle in a kyrtyll he strode,
And abode the lyon fygers and wode.
With that came the jaylere,

And other men that with him were,
And the lyon them amonge;
His pawes were stiffe and stronge,
The chambre-dore they undone,
And the lyon to them is gone.
Richarde sayd, "Helpe, Lorde Jesu!"
The lyon made to hym venu,
And wolde hym have all to rente:
Kynge Richarde besyde hym glente
(glanced.)

The lyon on the breste hym spurned,

That aboute he tourned.

The lyon was hongry and meagre,
And bette his tayle to be egre;
He loked aboute as he were madde;
Abrode he all his pawes spradde.
He cryde lowde, and yaned (yawned)
wyde,

Kynge Richarde bethought him that
tyde,

What hym was beste, and to hym sterte,
In at the throte his honde he gerte,
And hente out the herte with his honde
Lounge and all that he there fonde.
The lyon fell deed to the gronde:
Rycharde felt no wem (hurt) ne wounde
He fell on his knees in that place,
And thanked Jesu of his grace."

For the above feat, the author tells us, the king was deservedly called "STRONG RICHARD CURE DU LYOWNE."

Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. iii., p. 11

*The word minstrel is derived from the French menestrier; and was not in use here before the Norman conquest. It is remarkable that our old monkish historians do not use the word citharæedus, cantator, or the like, to express a minstrel in Latin; but, either mimus histrio, joculator, or some other word that implies gesture-hence it should seem that the minstrels set off their singing by mimicry or action: or according to Dr. Brown's hypothesis, united the powers of melody, poem, and dance. Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i., p. 10,

THE MINSTREL BLONDEL.

Richard, on his return from the Holy Land, was shipwrecked on the coast of Istria, from whence he pursued his route disguised like a pilgrim, with a flowing beard and a staff, through the dominions of Leopold, Duke of Austria; but he was discovered, and taken prisoner by this prince. A quarrel that had happened between them at the siege of Acre had rendered them implacable enemies to each other. Richard had ordered the colours which Leopold had set on a tower which he had taken to be pulled down and trodden under foot. The duke seized this occasion of revenging himself for the insult he had received. Henry the Sixth, emperor of the house of Suabia, was not less enraged against Richard. He had made an alliance with Tancred, who had wrested the crown of Sicily from Henry; and he therefore desired Leopold to commit his illustrious prisoner to his custody, which being done, he confined him for eighteen months in one of his old castles, and treated him with great rigour and indignity. Nothing could be more singular than the manner of discovering the situation of King Richard, and which Fauchet thus relates from an ancient chronicle.

A minstrel called Blondel, who owed his fortune to Richard, animated with tenderness towards his illustrious master, was resolved to go over the world till he had discovered the destiny of this prince. He had already traversed Europe, and was returning through Germany, when, talking one day at Lintz, in Austria, with the innkeeper, in order to make this discovery, he learnt that there was near the city, at the entrance of a forest, a strong and ancient castle, in which there was a prisoner who was guarded with great care.* A secret impulse persuaded Blondel that this was Richard. He went immediately to the castle, the sight of which made him tremble. He got acquainted with a peasant who went often there to carry provisions; questioned and offered him a considerable sum to declare who it was that was shut up there; but the good man, though he readily told all he knew, was ignorant both of the name and quality of the prisoner. He could only inform him that he was watched with the most exact attention, and was suffered no communication with any one but the keeper of the castle and his servants. He added that the prisoner had no other amusement than looking over the country through a small grated window, which served also for the light that glimmered through into his apartment. He told him that the castle was a horrid abode; that the staircase and the apartments were black with age; and so dark that, at noon-day, it was necessary to have lighted flambeaux to find the way along them. Blondel listened with eager attention,

The castle in which Richard was confined, is said to have been that of Diernstein, or Durnstein, in lower Austria; it stands on the north or left bank of the Danube, about fifty miles above Vienna, on the top of a hill or rock, close to the river.