Book II.] BLANCHE ROSE. 69 



France. Among other conditions of this treaty there was 

 one whereby it was tacitly understood that Louis was to 

 give up the Duke of Suftblk to Henry. This baseness, how- 

 ever fell through, owing to the duke's escape to Metz, in 

 Lorraine, when his pension was reduced to 6000 crowns. In 

 the meantime Paris was en fete, on account of the celebration 

 of the peace and the royal wedding festivities. The story of 

 this marriage is told by all our historians, and it would not 

 require notice at our hands, but that a French contemporary 

 reference to it has lately come to light, in which the writer 

 said, " that the king had got a white hackney from England 

 which would soon take him post to Paradise " — a true con- 

 clusion, as within three months from the time of his marriage 

 he sank, after a short illness, into the grave, while the widow 

 soon after married Charles Brandon, "the other" Duke of 

 Suffolk. When Blanche Rose heard of the death of Louis, 

 he left Metz secretly for Paris, to wait on Francis I., riding so 

 fast, " that he made forty leagues between day and night." 

 His negotiations with the new king, and his proceedings until 

 his return to Metz in the spring of 15 17, we need not stop 

 to consider, as these events do not concern our subject. How- 

 ever, shortly after his return to Metz we find him indulging 

 in the pleasures of the Turf " He possessed a horse which 

 he valued highly, and he often said that there was not his 

 equal within a hundred leagues of Metz, and finally backed 

 him to run against a horse belonging to Seigneur Nicolle 

 Dex, from the elm at Avegney to within St. Clement's Gate, 

 for eighty crowns ; and the money was paid into neutral 

 hands. On St. Clement's Day, Saturday, May 2nd, ' et a ce 

 jour meisme, que Ton courre I'awaine et le baicon au dit lieu 

 St. Clement,' the two gentlemen, with several others, rose 

 early, and had St. Thiebault's gate opened before the usual 

 time, and so passed into the fields for the race. For 

 two or three days before Dex had treated his horse as a 

 friend, and given him no hay, and had nothing to drink 

 but white wine (' le dit seigneur Nicolle n'avoit point donne 

 de foin a son chevaulx, ne n'avoit beu aultre chose que 

 du vin blanc '). He had also very light steel shoes made 



