OF SIX MEDLEVAL WOMEN 



fits. 



were supposed to amuse the unwary guests. 

 One sprinkled them with water, another with 

 black or white powder, as they passed by, and 

 yet another, in the form of a monkey, struck 

 them with a stick, whilst in a bower might be 

 seen a mirror wherein all who looked saw only 

 the distorted semblance of themselves. These 

 unwelcome pleasantries were a part of the 

 miscellaneous borrowings from the East. But 

 for the easily amused folk of the Middle Ages, 

 time passed merrily enough in the midst of 

 such pastimes, and only the shadow on the dial 

 seemed to mark its flight. 



But Mahaut, amid the manifold claims on 

 her time and talent, had seen the shadow 

 lengthening. From time to time she had been 

 attacked by illness, to which blood-letting and 

 other remedies of the day had brought relief. 

 But on the 25th November 1329, when in 

 Paris, she was seized with a sudden sickness, so 

 sudden that sinister rumours were noised abroad. 

 Human aid was of no avail. Two days later 

 there was general lamentation. The shadow had 

 lengthened into the night. Mahaut was dead. 

 In accordance with her wishes, she was buried 

 at the foot of her father's grave in the Abbey of 

 Maubuisson, near Paris, her heart being placed 

 in the Church of the Franciscans in Paris, 

 beside the remains of her son, whose tomb there 

 was afterwards removed to St. Denis. Her 

 possession of Artois, for which she had laboured 

 devotedly, became annexed to the Duchy of 



114 



