374 Le Roman de Rose. APRIL, 



<e Another adventure, still more strange, happened on the border of the 

 same country to one of the duke's hunters, and keeper of his honour. A stag 

 had been caught, killed, flayed, and cut up. This hunter hastened afterwards 

 to join his lord by a path which he knew well. Within the wood, and near 

 the border, he seeth a girl marvellously fine, richly attired, and withal vastly 

 sprightly of countenance. Her he approached and saluted, and, on her part, 

 she arose. Seeing her standing, he dismounted. Says he : ' Who art thou, 

 and what doest thou alone in this wood ?' Replied she : ( I am waiting for a 

 man who must pass this way.' He seized her by her sleeve, and offered her 

 his service. What more he said to her, I cannot tell ; but, as the report 

 goeth, he took her and seated her by his side on the grass. She bore all he did, 



said nothing, and offered no resistance. 



* * * * * 



When he wished to rise from her side, that he might go on his way, she 



seized him with great force (whether by the hands or feet, I do not know), 

 flew with him through the boughs and branches, made him rise very high into 

 the air, and fixed him like an owl at the top of a tree. When he wished to 

 look on her, and speak to her, he knew not what was become of her could 

 not see nor hear her ! The hunters, who were carrying the stag, soon passed 

 along the same path. Him they saw on the tree, and great was their trouble 

 to get him down." (Pp. 290-292.) 



From the death of Richard I., in 996, to that of Robert the Liberal, 

 otherwise Robert the Devil, who died on a pilgrimage in 1035, and who 

 was the father of William the Bastard, there is little in the Norman 

 annals likely to interest an English reader. 



Like almost all the Norman historians, Nace will have it that St. 

 Edward always designed William for his successor that he invited 

 the latter to his court, and solemnly declared that enterprising prince 

 heir to the crown; nay, that he prevailed on an assembly of nobles and 

 prelates to sanction the nomination. Though this is contradicted by the 

 positive and perhaps incontrovertible testimony of Ingulphus, we con- 

 sider the subject of so much importance in English history, that we can- 

 not pass it unnoticed. Hitherto it has not been so much noticed by 

 our own historians, as by those of France : and the reason doubtless is, 

 the difficulty of consulting the MS. of the Roman de Rose. We know 



Et a" terre lez li 1'asist : 

 Ele esgarda tut 6 sofri, 

 Nule rien ne li desfendi. 

 Purpensa sei ke il li fereit 

 Com horn e feme fere deit, 

 Quant li aut fet 90 ke li plaut, 

 E relever de lie se vaut, 

 E ke kuida de lie partir, 

 Ele 1'empeint de tet air, 

 Ne sai n od piez n od mainz, 

 Purmi baanches e parmi rainz 

 Le fist haut cuntre mont voler, 

 E el faist d'un arbre encroer. 

 Quant il vout ele esguarder, 

 E k'il kuida a lid parler, 

 Ne sont k'ele fu devenue, 

 Ne 1'ad oie ne ne vene. 

 Veneors kili cerf portonent, 

 Ki par cele sente pasauent, 

 Imr cumpaignun en 1'arbre virent, 

 A grant paine le descemlirent." 



