"event" of the day--the actual singing contest.
Four judges were appointed to examine those who successively presented
themselves, being guided by the strict laws and regulations of the
_Tablatures_. Those who violated these laws, that is, who made
mistakes, had to leave the singing-desk; the successful ones were,
however, crowned with wreaths, and had earned the right to act
themselves as judges on future occasions.]

[Footnote 33: Heinrich von Meissen, called Frauenlob (died 1318), after
having lived at various courts in both the north and the south of
Germany, settled at Mayence and gathered together (1311) a school or
society of burgher singers.]

[Footnote 34: The word "prince" is expressed in German by two distinct
words; one, like the English word, designates a member of a royal or
reigning house; the other is used as a simple title, often official,
ranking above duke. The Bishop of Bamberg was in this latter sense a
prince of the empire.]

[Footnote 35: At this time Francesco I. (of the illustrious house of
Medici) was _Grand Duke of Tuscany_, his father Cosimo I. having
exchanged the title of Duke of Florence for that of Grand Duke of
Tuscany in 1569. Francesco did much for the encouragement of art and
science. He founded the well-known Uffizi Gallery, and it was in his
reign that the Accademia Della Crusca was instituted.]

[Footnote 36: Lucas Cranach occupies along with his contemporary
Albrecht Duerer the first place in the ranks of German painters. Born in
Upper Franconia in 1472 (died 1553), he secured the favour of the
Elector of Saxony, and manifested extraordinary activity in several
branches of painting.]

_MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERI.
A TALE OF THE TIMES OF LOUIS XIV._

The little house in which lived Madeleine de Scuderi,[1] well known for
her pleasing verses, and the favour of Louis XIV. and the Marchioness
de Maintenon, was situated in the Rue St. Honoree.

One night almost at midnight--it would be about the autumn, of the year
1680--there came such a loud and violent knocking at the door of her
house that it made the whole entrance-passage ring again. Baptiste, who
in the lady's small household discharged at one and the same time the
offices of cook, footman, and porter, had with his mistress's
permission gone into the country to attend his sister's wedding; and
thus it happened that La Martiniere, Mademoiselle's lady-maid was
alone, and the