last advertizied of the case, who commanded that 

 the man should be straitly examined touching the 

 fact. He affirmeth himselfe innocent : the dog, 

 when the murtherer denied that he knew what 

 was become of the dogs master, never left barking 

 and bawling ; in so much as all that were present 

 tooke the same as a disproofe, that the dog made 

 against him. Well, the matter proceeded so far, 

 that the king ordered it should be decided by a 

 combat betweene the man and the dog. To make 

 short, the dog had the clay : and the combat is 

 painted and finely set forth in the hall of a certaine 

 castle in France ; and the worke wearing out with 

 age hath sometimes beene renewed by commande- 

 ment from the king. It deserveth (saith the Lord 

 de la Scale) to be set forth in pictures of brasse, 

 that it may never perish. 1 



The marks of a good dog, and of a gentle kind, 

 are these that follow. He must be fieshie, great, 

 of a large forehead, and full of appearing veines, 

 eyes blacke and naming, eares thin and long, the 

 necke long, the breast bearing out, the shoulders 

 broad, the thighs high, the flanks set forward, the 

 legs equally distant, the haire small and thicke, 

 the colour mingled. Belisarius, duke of Merito, 

 discourseth amply thereof, to content the curious 



1 The dog of Montargis. 

 29 



