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ROSE. 117 
silk hangings. The most distinguished unmar- 
ried females of the place defended this fortress, 
which was attacked by the youth of the other 
sex. The missiles with which both parties 
fought consisted of apples, almonds, nutmegs, 
lilies, narcissuses, violets, but chiefly of Roses, 
which supplied the place of artillery. Instead 
of musketry, they discharged volleys of Rose- 
water and other liquid perfumes, by means of 
syringes. This entertainment attracted thou- 
sands of spectators from far and near, and the 
emperor Frederic Barbarossa himself accounted 
it one of the highest diversions that he had ever 
enjoyed. 
In like manner, St. Medard, Bishop of Noyon, 
in France, instituted in the sixth century a 
festival at Salency, his birth-place, for adjudging 
one of the most interesting prizes that piety 
has ever offered to virtue. This prize consists 
of a simple crown of Roses, bestowed on the 
girl who is acknowledged by all her competitors 
to be the most amiable, modest, and dutiful. 
The founder of this festival enjoyed the high 
gratification of crowning his own sister as the 
first Rose-queen of Salency. The lapse of ages, 






















