under the customary regulations. Prodigious bustle and interest had been excited by this announcement; arrangements were made by the court for celebrating the festival with a magnificence that should eclipse all former precedent; the Place Carrousel in the Louvre was fitted up for the courses with extraordinary splendour; and every individual who was to figure in this royal entertainment, seemed resolved to equip himself with a brilliancy worthy of the occasion, and of the lavish expenditure of the monarch. Armour of all sorts was instantly put into busy requisition; cuirasses of Milan steel, inlaid with gold or precious stones; gorgeous casques, embossed or sculptured by Benvenuto Cellini ; swords of Damascus, Toledo, or Ferrara; gorgets, cuisses, gauntlets; all were ferreted out from their repositories, and furbished up for selection; while many a long lance was taken down from its rest, and poised by the intended

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quired to have two of these attendants, when the youth suggested that his friend Jocelyn, from his superior height, age, and skill, was better qualified than himself for the office of principal squire, which he was willing to resign in his favour, and would content himself with the station of the second. For this purpose they called upon Jocelyn, who was not less flattered by the preference, than delighted at an opportunity of witnessing, and even figuring in a spectacle, of which all Paris was absolutely mad to obtain a glimpse. Proceeding immediately to the Manêge, Sir Guy was delighted with his manner of going through his exercises, and appointed a meeting at the same place every morning to practise their evolutions, taking upon himself the task of equipping both his pages in an elegant suit of half

armour.

Intense was the public curiosity, and indescribable was the individual anxiety, as the

through which it was to pass, became thickly studded with heads, whose eager eyes glittering

in the sun, looked like the countless dew-drops that hang upon the forest-leaves as they sparkle in the first rays of morning.

The knights of the carousal, formed into four parties or quadrilles, and attended by their squires, pages, and footmen, with kettle-drums and trumpets, commenced the procession. Each quadrille was distinguished by its own colours and the emblazoned cognizance of the illustrious knight who had been chosen to lead it; and each was enriched with such a glistering gorgeousness of decoration, that it appeared, as it passed, to wrest the palm of admiration from its predecessor. When Jocelyn, however, and his young companion encountered the public eye, equipped in plain half-armour, without helmets on their heads, (for Sir Guy had insisted, that they should carry them in their

hands during the procession) it seemed as if

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