posing on her simplicity, and the
miller retaliates in much the same manner. The shepherd marries the
knight's sister, and the nobleman is not over scandalized.

"The vices of the monks are depicted in half a score tales, and the
seducers are punished with a severity not always in proportion to the
offence."

It seems curious that this valuable and interesting work has never
before been translated into English during the four and a half centuries
the book has been in existence. This is the more remarkable as the work
was edited in French by an English scholar--the late Thomas Wright. It
can hardly be the coarseness of some of the stories which has prevented
the _Nouvelles_ from being presented to English readers when there are
half a dozen versions of the _Heptameron_, which is quite as coarse as
the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, does not possess the same historical
interest, and is not to be compared to the present work as regards
either the stories or the style.

In addition to this, there is the history of the book itself, and
its connection with one of the most important personages in French
history--Louis XI. Indeed, in many French and English works of
reference, the authorship of the _Nouvelles_ has been attributed to him,
and though in recent years, the writer is now believed--and no doubt
correctly--to have been Antoine de la Salle, it is tolerably certain
that Prince Louis heard all the stories related, and very possibly
contributed several of them. The circumstances under which these stories
came to be narrated requires a few words of explanation.

At a very early age, Louis showed those qualities by which he was later
distinguished. When he was only fourteen, he caused his father, Charles
VII, much grief, both by his unfilial conduct and his behaviour to the
beautiful Agnes Sorel, the King's mistress, towards whom he felt an
implacable hatred. He is said to have slapped her face, because he
thought she did not treat him with proper respect. This blow was, it is
asserted, the primary cause of his revolt against his father's authority
(1440). The rebellion was put down, and the Prince was pardoned, but
relations between father and son were still strained, and in 1446, Louis
had to betake himself to his appanage of Dauphine, where he remained
for ten years, always plotting and scheming, and braving his father's
authority.

At length the Prince's Court at Grenoble became the seat of so many
conspiracies that