she turns from philosophy to a
treatise on military tactics and justice, _Le Livre des faits d'armes
et de chevalerie_. However devoid of interest, except as a landmark in
the history of military strategy and customs, this work may be to-day,
it was thought of sufficient importance in the reign of our Henry the
Seventh for the king to command Caxton to translate and print it
(1489) with the title of _The Book of Faytes of Arms_, a book still
sought after by our bibliophiles. It was further honoured by being
quoted as an authority in the reign of Henry the Eighth. Considering
the nature of its contents, this seems quite an extraordinary tribute
to the judgment and ability of the writer.

But the misery of France is ever increasing. Ceaseless civil war and
foreign invasion impoverish the people, and make desolate the land.
The dissolute Court is extravagant and filled with discord. Christine,
fired with patriotic fervour, once more makes an effort, which proves
to be her final one, to arouse the pleasure-loving nobility to some
sense of its obligations to the nation. _Le Livre des trois vertues_,
and _Le Livre de la paix_, appear one after the other. In the former,
which she dedicates to the Dauphine, Margaret of Burgundy, she merely
adds another to the long list of discourses for the guidance of women
which, in Christian times, begins as early as the second century.[35]
This theme forms the subject of so considerable a didactic literature
that it can only be hinted at here. Whether treated from a religious
or from a social point of view, or the two combined, the sum-total of
the teaching is moral training with a view to self-restraint and
subordination. Christine addresses herself to all women, from the
highest to the lowest, but her principal theme is the influence a
princess may and should have on Court life. She further counsels not
princesses alone, but all well-born women, not to attach too much
importance to the things of this world, to be charitable, and to see
to the education of their children, and so to inform themselves that
they may be capable of filling their husbands' place when they are
obliged to be absent at war or at the Court. She adds a plea for the
country, that war should be opposed, and one for the poor, that pity
should be shown to them. Then she addresses herself to the townswoman,
advising her to see to her household, not to fear to go into the
kitchen, and to avoid all luxury; then to servants