e Clementine_, of Le Macon and Brodeau, may
have worked at the devising, very likely re-shaped and adjusted by the
Queen herself, of the actual stories as we have them now.

The book, as we have it, consists of seven complete days of ten novels
each, and of an eighth containing two novels only. The fictitious scheme
of the setting is somewhat less lugubrious than that of the _Decameron_,
but still not without an element of tragedy. On the first of September,
"when the hot springs of the Pyrenees begin to enter upon their virtue,"
a company of persons of quality assembled at Cauterets, we are told, and
abode there three weeks with much profit. But when they tried to return,
rain set in with such severity that they thought the Deluge had come
again, and they found their roads, especially that to the French side,
almost entirely barred by the Gave de Bearn and other rivers. So they
scattered in different directions, most of them taking the Spanish
side, either along the mountains and across to Roussillon or straight to
Barcelona, and thence home by sea. But a certain widow, named Oisille,
made her way with much loss of men and horses to the Abbey of Notre Dame
de Serrance. Here she was joined by divers gentlemen and ladies, who
had had even worse experiences of travel than herself, with bears and
brigands, and other evil things, so that one of them, Longarine, had
lost her husband, murdered in an affray in one of the cut-throat inns
always dear to romance. Besides this disconsolate person and Oisille,
the company consisted of a married pair, Hircan and Parlamente; two
young cavaliers, Dagoucin and Saffredent; two young ladies, Nomerfide
and Ennasuite; Simontault, a cavalier-servant of Parlamente; and
Geburon, a knight older and discreeter than the rest of the company
except Oisille.(1)

1 These names have been accommodated to M. Le Roux de
Lincy's orthography, from MS. No. 1512; but for myself I
prefer the spellings, especially "Emarsuitte," more usual in
the printed editions.--G. S.

These form the party, and it is to be noted that idle and contradictory
as all the attempts made to identify them have been (for instance, the
most confident interpreters hesitate between Oisille and Parlamente, an
aged widow and a youthful wife, for Margaret herself), it is not to be
denied that the various parts are kept up with much decision and spirit.
Of the men, indeed, Hircan is the only one who has a very decided