32 THE ROSE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



excuse for not coming. This time the Duke of Guise carried 

 away the orange, which he split in two, and no other could be 

 found for a mark. 



The young prince perceived a Rose in the bosom of a young 

 girl among the spectators, and seizing it, quickly placed it on the 

 mark. The Duke shot first, and missed ; Henry succeeding him, 

 placed his arrow in the middle of the flower, and returned it to 

 the pretty villager with the victorious arrow which had pierced 

 its stem. 



At Salency, a village of France, the Rose is the reward of ex- 

 cellent traits of character ; they attribute the origin of the fete of 

 La Rosiere, in that country, to Medard, bishop of Noyou, who 

 lived at the end of the fifteenth, and beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, during the reign of Clovis. That bishop, who was also 

 Lord of Salency, had established a fund, giving a sum of 

 twenty-five livres (five dollars), and a crown or hat of roses to 

 the young girl on his estate, who enjoyed the greatest reputation 

 for amiability and excellence of character. Tradition states that 

 the prelate himself gave this desired prize to one of his sisters, 

 whom the public voice had named to be Rosiere. Before the 

 revolution of 1789, there could be seen, beneath the altar of the 

 chapel of St. Medard, at Salency, a tablet, where that bishop was 

 represented in pontifical dress, and placing a crown of roses on 

 the head of his sister, who was on her knees, with her hair 

 dressed. 



The bishop had set aside, on a part of his domain, since called 

 the " Manor of the Rose," an annual rent of twenty-five livres, 

 at that time a considerable sum, for paying all the expenses of 

 this ceremony. It is stated that Louis XIIL, being at the chateau 

 of Varennes, near Salency, about the time of this ceremony, was 

 desirous of adding to its eclat by his personal presence ; but 

 finding himself indisposed, he sent to La Rosiere, by a marquis 

 of rank and first captain of his guards, a ring and his blue riband. 

 " Go," said he to the marquis, " and present this riband to her 

 who shall be crowned. It has been long the prize of honor ; it 

 shall now become the reward of virtue." Since that time La 



