purchased by persons who were present when
the stories were told, the mistake would have been rectified in the
subsequent editions that Verard brought out in the course of the next
few years, when Louis had been long dead and there was no necessity to
flatter his vanity.

On examining the stories related by "Monseigneur," it seems to me that
there is some slight internal evidence that they were told by Louis.

Brantome says of him that, "he loved to hear tales of loose women,
and had but a poor opinion of woman and did not believe they were all
chaste. (This sounds well coming from Brantome) Anyone who could relate
such tales was gladly welcomed by the Prince, who would have given all
Homer and Virgil too for a funny story." The Prince must have heard many
such stories, and would be likely to repeat them, and we find the
first half dozen stories are decidedly "broad," (No XI was afterwards
appropriated by Rabelais, as "Hans Carvel's Ring") and we may suspect
that Louis tried to show the different narrators by personal example
what he considered a really "good tale."

We know also Louis was subject to fits of religious melancholy, and
evinced a superstitious veneration for holy things, and even wore
little, leaden images of the saints round his hat. In many of the
stories we find monks punished for their immorality, or laughed at
for their ignorance, and nowhere do we see any particular veneration
displayed for the Church. The only exception is No LXX, "The Devil's
Horn," in which a knight by sheer faith in the mystery of baptism
vanquishes the Devil, whereas one of the knight's retainers, armed
with a battle-axe but not possessing his master's robust faith in the
efficacy of holy water, is carried off bodily, and never heard of again.
It seems to me that this story bears the stamp of the character of
Louis, who though suspicious towards men, was childishly credulous in
religious matters, but I leave the question for critics more capable
than I to decide.

Of the thirty-two noblemen or squires who contributed the other stories,
mention will be made in the notes. Of the stories, I may here mention
that 14 or 15 were taken from Boccaccio, and as many more from Poggio or
other Italian writers, or French _fabliaux_, but about 70 of them appear
to be original.

The knights and squires who told the stories had probably no great skill
as _raconteurs_, and perhaps did not read or write very fluently. The
tales were written