the administration of public affairs, upon pretense he was incapable of business, and no longer fit to govern. The gate of the Plessis was never opened, nor the drawbridge let down, before eight o'clock in the morning, at which time the officers were let in; and the captains ordered their guards to their several posts, with pickets of archers in the middle of the court, as in a town upon the frontiers that is closely guarded: nor was any person admitted to enter except by the wicket and with the king's knowledge, unless it were the steward of his household, and such persons as were not admitted into the royal presence. Is it possible then to keep a prince (with any regard to his quality) in a closer prison than he kept himself? The cages which were made for other people were about eight feet square; and he (though so great a monarch) had but a small court of the castle to walk in, and seldom made use of that, but generally kept himself in the gallery, out of which he went into the chambers on his way to mass, but never passed through the court. Who can deny that he was a sufferer as well as his neighbors, considering how he was locked up and guarded, afraid of his own children and relations, and changing every day those very servants whom he had brought up and advanced; and though they owed all their perferment to him, yet he durst not trust any of them, but shut himself up in those strange chains and inclosures. If the place where he confined himself was larger than a common prison, he also was much greater than common prisoners. It may be urged that other princes have been more given to suspicion than he, but it was not in our time; and, perhaps, their wisdom was not so eminent, nor were their subjects so good. They might too, probably, have been tyrants, and bloody-minded; but our king never did any person a mischief who had not offended him first, though I do not say all who offended him deserved death. I have not recorded these things merely to represent our master as a suspicious and mistrustful prince; but to show that by the patience which he expressed in his sufferings (like those which he inflicted on other people), they may be looked upon, in my judgment, as a punishment which our Lord inflicted upon him in this world, in order to deal more mercifully with him in the next, as well in regard to those things before mentioned, as to the distempers of his body, which were great and painful, and much dreaded by him before they came upon him; and likewise, that those princes who may be his successors may learn by his example to be more tender and indulgent to their subjects, and less severe in their punishments, than our master had been : although I will not censure him, or say I ever saw a better prince; for though he oppressed his subjects himself, he would never see them injured by anybody else. THE MORGANTE MAGGIORE. BY PULCI: BYRON'S TRANSLATION. [LUIGI PULCI, an Italian poet, born at Florence in 1432; died about 1487. He was an intimate friend of Lorenzo de' Medici and Politian, and the author of "Il Morgante Maggiore" (first published in 1481), a burlesque epic, in twentyeight cantos, with Roland as the hero. Apart from its literary excellence, the poem is valuable as a source of information regarding the early Tuscan dialect.] IN THE beginning was the Word next God; God was the Word, the Word no less was he: Of thinking, and without him naught could be: One only, to be my companion, who And thou, oh Virgin! daughter, mother, bride Of the same Lord, who gave to you each key The day thy Gabriel said "All hail!" to thee, With flowing rhymes, a pleasant style and free, And to the end illuminate my mind. Twelve paladins had Charles in court, of whom Him traitor Gan conducted to the tomb While the horn rang so loud, and knelled the doom Of their sad rout, though he did all knight can do; And Dante in his comedy has given To him a happy seat with Charles in heaven. 'Twas Christmas day; in Paris all his court The much-renowned St. Dennis being the cause; Angiolin of Bayonne, and Oliver, And gentle Belinghieri too came there: Avolio, and Arino, and Othone Of Normandy, and Richard Paladin, Wise Hamo, and the ancient Salemone, Walter of Lion's Mount and Baldovin, Who was the son of the sad Ganellone, Were there, exciting too much gladness in The son of Pepin: - when his knights came hither, He groaned with joy to see them all together. But watchful Fortune, lurking, takes good heed To vent his spite, that thus with Charles the king One day he openly began to say: "Orlando must we always then obey? "A thousand times I've been about to say, Orlando too presumptuously goes on; Here are we, counts, kings, dukes, to own thy sway, Hamo, and Otho, Ogier, Solomon, Each have to honor thee and to obey; But he has too much credit near the throne, Which we won't suffer, but are quite decided By such a boy to be no longer guided. "And even at Aspramont thou didst begin To let him know he was a gallant knight, And by the fount did much the day to win; But I know who that day had won the fight If it had not for good Gherardo been: The victory was Almonte's else; his sight He kept upon the standard, and the laurels In fact and fairness are his earning, Charles. "If thou rememberest being in Gascony, When there advanced the nations out of Spain, ""Tis fit thy grandeur should dispense relief, As by himself it chanced he sat apart: Displeased he was with Gan because he said it, But much more still that Charles should give him credit. And with the sword he would have murdered Gan, And from his hand extracted Durlindan, Wanted but little to have slain him there; From Ermellina, consort of the Dane, He took Cortana, and then took Rondell, Like him a fury counsels; his revenge On Gan in that rash act he seemed to take, Which Aldabella thought extremely strange; But soon Orlando found himself awake; VOL. XI.-6 And his spouse took his bridle on this change, Then full of wrath departed from the place, An abbey which in a lone desert lay, 'Midst glens obscure, and distant lands, he found, Which formed the Christian's and the pagan's bound. The abbot was called Clermont, and by blood The monks could pass the convent gate no more, Him who was born of Mary's holiest blood, Said the abbot: "You are welcome; what is mine We give you freely, since that you believe With us in Mary Mother's Son divine; And that you may not, cavalier, conceive The cause of our delay to let you in To be rusticity, you shall receive The reason why our gate was barred to you: "When hither to inhabit first we came These mountains, albeit that they are obscure, |