SUMMER MEETING. 57 



lous bush. A cathedral was built above it, its roots being enclosed in 

 a sort of coffin-shaped vault, under the middle altar of the crypt. 

 This crypt was built in the year 818, and with the rose-tree it survived 

 a fire which destroyed all the rest of the cathedral in 1146. The roots 

 are over J 000 years old. The rose plant was, when described a few 

 years ago, still living, and blooming profusely, and was 26 feet high, 

 covering 32 feet of wall, though the stem was only two inches in 

 diameter. 



A curious custom in the Italian city of Treviso is recorded. A 

 mimic castle hung with rich carpets and silk was erected and "manned" 

 by the maidens of the city. Their weapons of defense consisted of 

 Toses, rose-water and other equally delicate missiles. The fortress 

 was attacked by a bevy of young men, armed with like odoriferous 

 projectiles. The German emperor, Barbarossa, in the middle of the 

 twelfth century, made one of the attacking party, and declared himself 

 delighted with the sport. 



Elizabeth of Hungary, the heroine of Kingsley's " Saints' Trag- 

 edy," has a legend told of her which is a little doubtful, as a tribute to 

 her truthfulness and conjugal loyalty. She was a very gentle and 

 tender saint, devoting herself to the care of the poor. She was wont 

 to take long and toilsome journeys on foot, carrying them aid and 

 relief. This was evidently against the wishes of her husband, for it is 

 related that as she was one day going by stealth with her favorite maid 

 on one of these errands of mercy, she met her liege lord as she was 

 climbing up a steep road, bending under the load of provisions con- 

 cealed under her cloak. He demanded peremptorily her errand. Some 

 of the writers say that she answered "Roses;" others that her hus- 

 band, not waiting for a reply, threw open her mantle. Instead of what 

 he expected, he found she was laden down with a lapful of the most 

 exquisite red and white roses. The blessed angels, who have in Cath- 

 olic legends a decided preference for charity over the other virtues, 

 had spared her a conjugal rebuke by miraculously changing her clan- 

 destine charities into roses. 



The " Romaunt of the Rose," the delight of Philip the Fair, is 

 the longest and most important of the works of the Trouveres of 

 France. It was begun by Guillaume de Lorris, who died in 1260, and 

 finished by Jean de Meun some 50 years later. It was written in 

 verse, and in the allegorical form affected in that day. The story is of 

 a lover who becomes violently enamored of a rose whose reflection he 

 sees in a well (they did not fall in love in those days, but became 

 enamored ). He sighs, he is restless, he becomes agitated, he seeks 

 to possess himself of the coveted treasure, he encounters all the alle- 



