RENAISSANCE 



81 



begged La Fontaine to give her a copy of every 

 fable in which her favourite animal played its un- 

 grateful part. These precious manuscripts, after 

 being lost for a century and more, were discovered 

 by M. Feuillet de Conches, stored away in a lumber 

 room with other interesting and valuable papers of 

 the de Bouillon family, whose estate had passed 

 into alien hands, and whose long-prized treasures 

 had been thrust into dusty oblivion. 



