at evening, again clad in her
jewels and brocades, the Countess Marguerite, at the close of a feast
laid for her husband's comrades after a day at the chase, offered each
knight a bit of this bread and cheese, with a moving story of poor Jean
and a prayer that all should wish what her heart so long and vainly had
desired. Nine months later, so concludes the tale, a fair son and heir
was born to the happy dame. On the walls of the Hall of the Chevaliers,
among the painted legends of the house, poor Jean and Countess
Marguerite live in pictured memory; and a room next the great kitchen of
the chateau, called by the cripple's name, has been pointed out for many
generations as the spot where, fed on the fat of the land, he enjoyed
the bounty of the countess during the remainder of his days.

Rodolphe le Jeune, the long awaited heir of this story, did not live to
inherit the rule of the domain whose fame his father had so sadly
stained. Brilliantly educated at the court of Savoy, and later the
councilor of the countess regent, he emulated his uncle's heroic example
and joined the English armies under Buckingham in France, there winning
praise and the offer of the chevalier's accolade. But he failed to
fulfil the promise of his youth and died prematurely, leaving his young
son Antoine, the last hope of the family, to succeed to his grandfather.
Count Antoine's overlord, the youthful count of Savoy, confided the
education of his vassal and protege to a venerable prelate of Lausanne;
but heeding nothing of his pious instructions the young ruler wasted his
revenues in extravagant hospitality, lived gaily with his mistresses,
and celebrated the weddings of his two sisters with famous feasting and
generous marriage gifts. Unlike his predecessors, who shared the rule of
Gruyere with brothers or sons, he reigned alone, and gave himself wholly
to the ambition of maintaining the pleasure-loving reputation of his
house. More than ever under Count Antoine was Gruyere a court of love.
The numerous and beautiful children of his mistresses filled the castle
with their youthful gayety and charm, and his two splendid sons,
Francois and Jean, proudly acknowledged by their father and legitimized
with the sanction of the pope, took their place among the young nobles
of the country as heirs of the Gruyere possessions. Again the gay
Coraules of flower-crowned shepherds and maids wound over the valleys
and hills. Again minstrels and chroniclers rec