ibbet. Alas, and with so pitiful an experience of life,
Villon can offer us nothing but terror and lamentation about death! No
one has ever more skilfully communicated his own disenchantment; no one
ever blown a more ear-piercing note of sadness. This unrepentant thief
can attain neither to Christian confidence nor to the spirit of the
bright Greek saying, that whom the gods love die early. It is a poor
heart, and a poorer age, that cannot accept the conditions of life with
some heroic readiness.

* * * * *

The date of the "Large Testament" is the last date in the poet's
biography. After having achieved that admirable and despicable
performance, he disappears into the night from whence he came. How or
when he died, whether decently in bed or trussed up to a gallows,
remains a riddle for foolhardy commentators. It appears his health had
suffered in the pit at Meun; he was thirty years of age and quite bald;
with the notch in his under lip where Sermaise had struck him with the
sword, and what wrinkles the reader may imagine. In default of
portraits, that is all I have been able to piece together, and perhaps
even the baldness should be taken as a figure of his destitution. A
sinister dog, in all likelihood, but with a look in his eye, and the
loose flexile mouth that goes with wit and an overweening sensual
temperament. Certainly the sorriest figure on the rolls of fame.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] "Etude Biographique sur Francois Villon." Paris: H. Menu.

[7] "Bourgeois de Paris," ed. Pantheon, pp. 688, 689.

[8] "Bourgeois," pp. 627, 636, and 725.

[9] "Chronique Scandaleuse," ed. Pantheon, p. 237.

[10] Monstrelet: "Pantheon Litteraire," p. 26.

[11] "Chron. Scand." _ut supra_.

[12] Here and there, principally in the order of events, this article
differs from M. Longnon's own reading of his material. The ground on
which he defers the execution of Montigny and De Cayeux beyond the
date of their trials seems insufficient. There is a law of parsimony
for the construction of historical documents; simplicity is the
first duty of narration; and hanged they were.

[13] "Chron. Scand.," p. 338.

VII

CHARLES OF ORLEANS

For one who was no great politician, nor (as men go) especially wise,
capable, or virtuous, Charles of Orleans is more than usually enviable
to all who love that better sort of fame which consists in being known
not widely, b