TILT A L'OUTRANCE. 



C'est un proverbe et commun ris, 

 Qu'en la coutume de Lorris, 

 Si juste que soit la demande, 



I,e mort 



A tort, 

 Et le battu paye 1'amende. 



LE PLAID DU REWARD. 



" WHAT, ho ! master Marcoquet ! will you give us a lodging to 

 night in your hostelry, or do you mean to leave us to pass the night 

 under the canopy ? In the name of the blessed Saint Julian, patron 

 of travellers and strangers, let us hear the sound of your voice, for 

 here have we knocked and called at your door for a full hour ! We 

 are almost choked by the fog from the Seine, and if we have to wait 

 any longer shall shortly be buried with our horses in the mud of the 

 Rue Mortellerie ! " 



It was on the night of the 16th of September, 1386, that these 

 outcries assailed the hostelry, known in the city of Paris by the sign 

 of the Porcupine ; they proceeded from a squire mounted on a mule, 

 who appeared to act as guide to two others who rode beside him 

 one a tall man on a black charger enveloped in a long grey mantle, 

 the other, a female figure, whose palfrey's rein was guided by her 

 companion ; her form was also closely shrouded beneath an ample 

 cloak, and her features were carefully concealed under a crimson head- 

 dress of peculiar shape, termed the 'hanin.' * 



"No answer !" exclaimed the squire, with an oath, " I think 



every body in Paris must be dead, for I hear the sound of neither 

 children, poultry or dogs, and by the want of these signs we gene- 

 rally know when towns and villages are abandoned and empty. Ah! 

 hark ! the clock of Saint Jacques la Boucherie is striking ! One, ' 

 two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten ; 

 ten o'clock ! Come, nothing remains for us but to reach the sign of 

 Our Lady, or the Tavern of the Eleven Hundred Devils, which is 

 open all night, though we must be careful not to tumble into the 

 basket-maker's swamp in passing along the Planches-Mibrai." 



With these words the travellers were on the point of departing, 

 when a sudden light illumined the darkness which surrounded them. 

 Six of the watch, dressed in party-coloured coats of black and white, 

 approached from the quarter of the Greve : they carried flambeaux, 

 which cast a strong red glare on the dusky gables of the hostelry, 

 and enabled the travellers to discern an enormous porcupine, sculp- 

 tured above a door, as narrow and lofty as that of a belfry. The 

 watch soon drew near the stranger on the black charger, who as soon 



* Resembling, with some slight modifications, arising from the quality of the 

 material used, the cap worn by the Cauchoises of Normandy, at the present 

 day. 



