()0 TILT A L'OUTKANCE. 



nacs * and the Burgundians, wherein they little heeded the powerful 

 lords, who each sought by fair means and courtesies to rank them on 

 their side. " I would give a franc-a-chcval, full weight, to know 

 what can be the cause of the joust being delayed," exclaimed Marco- 

 quet, who began to weary of being so long absent from his kitchen. 

 " I will tell you for nothing, gossip/' said a butcher ; " they are 

 waiting for the king, before whose arrival the champions cannot ap- 

 pear in the lists, and I dare say we shall have to wait long enough, He 

 perhaps is not the cause of the delay, for he likes the jousts very 

 much, as he does every thing new, being somewhat flighty ; but most 

 likely he is detained by Queen Isabeau." " Or by his fair uncle of 

 Burgundy," added a mercer ; " for these salt Burgu?idians-f command 

 all things here, even to to the very weathercocks of the Hotel Saint 

 Paul. It is a sad thing that the white cross should yield in this 

 manner to that of St. Andrew." " It's a still greater pity," inter- 

 posed a tanner, " that we should yield to both of them ; and for any 

 choice between them I would not give the horns of an old ox. It's 

 clear enough that whether the wind blows from Burgundy or Or- 

 leans, we are not the less aggrieved, and lose our franchise so readily, 

 that it were as well to remain taxed and corveable, as become syndic 

 of one of the six bodies of trades in Paris." "Yes!" answered the 

 butcher, " but Monsieur de Bourgogne is not of that opinion, and if 



King Charles will not learn to govern better " Here an old 



woman broke in, " Good folks," said she, " I think if the provost 

 overhears you, he will soon make you meat for the crows on a new 

 gibbet. But this has nothing to do with it. Depend upon it the 

 reason why the joust does not begin is that one of the champions has 

 recanted, or both perhaps, for men-at-arms are not what they were 

 in the time of the good Constable, and they don't fight now as they 

 used to do. In my time the jousters came into the field with no 

 other armour than their ladies' shifts; while now-a-days they are shut 

 up in their shells like crabs." " Ay ! ay ! good mother," observed 

 the butcher, " healed wounds and dead folks are soon forgotten ; we 

 leave out the bad only to remember the good. To hear you talk one 

 would think that in your time the cabbages grew ready dressed, and 

 the cows gave so much milk that people skimmed it in boats to make 

 mountains of butter. For all this, I don't undertake to defend the 



* In a disturbance which took place in Paris in the reign of Charles VI. the 

 people armed themselves with offensive weapons taken from the Bastille, and 

 in particular with leaden mallets, which procured for them the name of Mail- 

 lotins. The " maillet d'armes" differed from the " marteau d'armes," by the 

 head being square at both ends, while one end of the latter was pointed and 

 sharp. At the combat of u The Thirty," an English knight "frappait d'un 

 maillet pesant vingt-cinq livres." And in the chronicle of Duguesclin, that warrior 

 rushing into the field of battle 



" Assaut PAnglois au martel d'acier 



Tout ainsi les abat comme fait un bouchier." 



In the time of Louis XII. the English archers still carried the leaden mallet. 



f This phrase was applied to the Burgundians by all the writers of the 

 period, but its etymology is doubtful. The general opinion is that it was de- 

 rived from the number of salt-works in the domains of the Duke of Burgundy. 



