Sir Paon Dc Riict and Chaucer 6i 



knights deputed by Queen Philippa to conduct out of town the 

 citizens whom she had saved (Froissart 5. 215) : 



Et au matin elle fist donner a casqun sys nobles [say, $150], et les 

 fist conduire hors de I'oost par messire Sanse d'Aubrecicourt et 

 messire Paon de Ruet, si avent que il vorrent, et que il fu avis as 

 deus chevaliers que il estoient hors dou peril, et au departir il les 

 commanderent a Dieu, et retournerent li chevalier en I'oost. 



He was still hving in 1351, according" to the following item 

 of account quoted by Kervyn de Lettenhove {Froissart 15. 399- 

 400) : 'A monseigneur Paon de Ruet, pour ofTrandes pour 

 monseigneur le duch \\"illame, le duch Aubiert, et le duch Othon, 

 quant il alerent en pellegrinage a Saint-Ornon a Sebourch.' 



In 1658, Dugdale thus reports-- concerning Ruet's tomb: 



In australi ala, navi Ecclesise opposita (prope tumulum D. Johannis 

 de Bellocampo), sub lapide marmoreo, jacet Paganus Roet, Rex 

 Armorum tempore Regis Edwardi tertii. 



With this may be compared the remarks of Nicolas (Aldine 

 Chaucer, p. 107) : 



It is remarkable that the name of Sir Payne Roet has not been found 

 in any of the numerous Records that have been examined. All that 

 has been discovered of him is the following statement^ in Weever's 

 'Ancient Funeral Monuments,' p. 4I3''': 'In St. Paul's, near unto 

 Sir John Beauchamp's tomb, commonly called Duke Humphrey's, 

 upon a fair marble stone inlaid all over with brass (of all which 

 nothing but the heads of a few brazen nails are at this day visible), 

 and engraven with the representation and coat of arms of the party 

 defunct, thus much of a mangled funeral inscription was of late 

 times perspicuous to be read, as followeth : 



Hic Jacet Paganus Roet Miles Guyenne Rex 

 Armorum Pater Catherine Ducisse Lancastrie.' 



The Rceulx coat of arms seems always to have played upon the 

 word for wheel. -^ Thus the modern family of Roeult, dit 

 Resteau, has, for the Roeult quarterings, Gules, three wheels 

 argent.^** Kervyn (Froissart, p. 462) describes the arms of 



" Hist, of St. Paul's Cathedral, p. 55. 



^ Kirk also says (p. xvi) : 'This seems to be all that is known of him'; 

 to the same effect Skeat, Oxford Chaucer i. 1. 



^*This refers to the edition of 1767, edited by William Tooke. There 

 is nothing on the subject in the edition of 1631. 



"^Godefroy gives roelz, rocu.v, roculx. as the plural of rod, roucl, roal. 



^° Rietstap, Armorial General. 



