them his blessing, he caused a cross to be brought to him? he took it in his hands, and wept devoutly, and made a good prayer. Lifting up his eyes to heaven, he crossed himself three times, embraced the Cross, and then said, “O Lord our Father, true God Jesus Christ, into thy hands I com mend my spirit. Deign by thy holy passion, which thou hast suffered, to receive my soul into Paradise with the blessed St. Martin, whose festival the Christians celebrate this day;" and then, with eyes still raised to Heaven, he departed *." The simplicity and zeal with which the ordinary exercises of devotion were observed deserve attention. St. Palaye informs us, upon the authority of the doctrinal MSS. of S. Germain, that the knights of old never allowed themselves to be absent from the morning service of the church as soon as they were risen; and we meet with continued instances of this practice both in private annals, and in the public conduct of the camp, in Froissart, Joinville's History of St. Louis, the Ancient Chronicles, the Lives of Bayard, Du Guesclin, Francis I. and even Henry IV. Every one knows the famous reply of this latter monarch when he and his army fell upon their knees before the battle of Coutres," On ne peut trop s'humilier devant Dieu, ni trop braver les hommes." What a description of Charlemagne is given by Eginhart. "He observed with the utmost piety and veneration the Christian religion with which he had been imbued from childhood; he frequented the church early and late, even at the offices of the night, whenever his health permitted him. Even his banquet hall had a religious solemnity; twelve varlets stood round, holding lighted tapers, while a clerk read aloud a chapter from St. Augustin, “De civitate Dei." The details in Froissart are so associated with heroic scenes, that it may be worth while to select a few. Thus, upon the morning of the day on which the French and English armies were to fight at Vironfosse "quand vint le vendredy au matin, les deux osts s'appareillerent et ouyrent la messe chacun seigneur, entre ses gens et en son logis et se communierent et confesserent plusieurs." And on the morning of the battle of Caen, he relates, * Chronique de Ramon de Muntaner, Chap. XLVII. and CXLVI. "En ce jour se leverent les Anglois moult matin et s'appareillerent pour aller devant Caen. Puis ouit le Roy messe devant soleil levant: et apres monta à cheval," &c. Then at Crecy, on the Friday evening before the battle, the king gave a supper to his earls and barons, "et fit bonne chere: et quand il leur eut donne congé d'aller reposer, et il fut demouré delez les chevaliers de sa chambre, il entra en son oratoire : et fut la à genoux et en oraisons, devant son autel en prient Dieu qu'il le laissast lendemain (s'ils se combattoint) issir de la besongne à honneur. Environ minuit s'en alla coucher. Le lendemain se leva assez matin et ouit messe, et le prince de Galles son fils; et se communierent; et la plus grande partie de ses gens se confesserent et meirent en bon estat." The same historian, in his celebrated description of the Earl of Foix, relates that "he sayd many orisons every daye: a nocturne of the psalter, matyns of our Lady, and the Holy Ghost, and of the crosse, and dirige every day." If it be objected to this example, that the same historian has recorded the cruel deeds of this earl, such as the murder of Sir Peter Ernalton, the punishment, in fact the killing, of his son in prison, and the execution of so many noble youths upon mere suspicion, and that therefore his religion and his orisons are nothing, I will rather advise my reader to take the good and to leave the evil, to imitate the simplicity and the charity of Froissart, when he says, "thus the erle was buryed in the freers before the hyghe aulter: so there is no more mencion made of hym; God have mercy upon his soule." Or to exclaim with King Henry, after witnessing the death of Cardinal Beaufort, "O God, forgive him! Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all." In all castles mass was said every morning. Thus we are told of Sir Galahad, Sir Launcelot's son: "And at the laste hit happened hym to depart from a place or a castle, the whiche was named Abblasoure, and he hadde herd no masse, the whiche he was wonte ever to here or ever he departed oute of ony castle or place, and kepte that for a customme." Upon this subject I will exclaim with Sir Thomas Maleore, "Lo ye al englissh men,-Loo thus was the olde custome. and usage of this londe." Froissart relates how the Earl of Pembroke, when besieged in the house of the Templars, near Poictiers, dispatched a 66 squire upon his best horse to Sir John Chandos. The squire" departed at the hour of mydnight, and al the night he rode out of his way, and when it was mornyng and fayre day, than he knew his way, and so rode towards Poiters, and by that tyme his horse was wary: howbeit he came thyder by nyne of the clocke, and ther alyghted before Sir Johan Chandos lodgyng, and entred and founde him at masse, and so came and kneeled down before him, and dyde his message as he was commanded." This was the famous Sir John Chandos, whom du Guesclin called "the moost renowned knight of the worlde;" and Froissart, a right hardy and courageous knight, who was slain in battle and lamented by his friends and his foes." Sir John Froissart relates, that he travelled for some days with Sir Espeange de Lion, "a valyant and an experte man of armes, about the age of L yeres :-and this knyght every day after he had sayd his prayers, moost parte all the day after he toke his pastyme with me, in demaunding of tidynges." These instances will serve to shew what was the universal practice of the age. There were indeed, then, as there are now, men who objected to it as useless and superstitious. Thus they accused St. Louis of devoting too much time to his prayers. Les hommes sont étranges," he replied with sweetness, "on me fait un crime de mon assiduité à la prière; on ne disoit mot si j'employs les heures que je lui donne à jouer aux jeux de hasard, à courir la bete fauve, ou à chasser aux oiseaux." An old historian says, that the private chapel of Louis IX. "etoit şon arsenal contre toutes les traverses du monde." But let us return to the Chevalier Bayard. "He loved and feared God," says the President d'Expilly, in the conclusion of his éloge. "He had always recourse to him in difficulty, praying regularly, both morning and evening, for which purpose he would be always alone." So we read of King Louis VIII. "Il avoit coustume que devant tous ses fais faisoit oraison à nostre Seigneur In time of war, the observance of this duty was regarded as of vital importance. Before the battle of Hastings, while the English passed the night in revellings, "les Normands au contraire," says an old chronical, "ordon Chronique de St. Denis, II. 2. nerent de leurs consciences, en faisant des prieres et des oraisons. Les gens d'eglise ne cesserent de dire des lytanies et le pseautier, ouirent des confessions et administrerent ceux qui se présenterent au plus matin." Thus also in the old poem. On the combat of the thirty Bre tons against thirty English, we read, Et Englois jurent Dieu qui souffre passions Que Dieu leur soit en aide par ses saintismes nous. However, it appears from Froissart that the English were also in prayer before the battle. It was remarked, that on the morning of the 17th of July 1453, that of the fatal battle of Castillon, the gallant Lord Talbot hastily left the mass, upon a sudden information, saying, "May I never again hear mass if I do not this day defeat the French who are here." And against the entreaties of the old experienced Sir Thomas Cuningham, who bore his banner, he gave battle, and lost his army, his son, and his own life. In the year 870, when the Danes, with their two kings, were going to give battle at Aston, near Wallingford, in Berkshire, Ethelred, the Saxon king, waited to say his prayers in his tent, which he declared he would not leave till the priest had finished. It was remarked that the event of the day was not the less happy. The long and dreadful struggle ended in the death of the King Bacseg, of the younger Sidroc, of many earls, and of some thousand Danes, who fled in general rout. Sir Thomas More, when Lord Chancellor, used daily, in the morning, with his children, to say the seven Psalms and the Litanies; and, at night, he would call all his household to go with him into the chapel, or to his hall, and there, on his knees, he would say the Psalm Miserere, and the anthem Salve Regina, and the Psalm de Profundis; and, on every festival, he took care that all his family should hear mass, and at Easter, Christmas, Whitsuntide, and All-Saints, he would have all to arise at midnight, and go to the church, and there be present at matins. Olivier de la Marche thus describes the Count of Charolois, who, in jousting, would give and receive as great blows as if he had been only a poor companion. "He was expert at every chivalrous game, and beloved by all, dancing with high and low, rich and poor, all alike: he was also skilled in music. Devout before God, he kept all days of fast strictly; he never went to bed without hearing his hours read: great giver of alms, he never refused poor people in town or country." This was Charles the bold in his youth! before ambition and the world had corrupted his heart. 66 Olivier de la Marche says of Philip le Bon, Duke of Burgundy, "When his knights were about to take Luxembourg by surprise, and the trumpet had sounded to be in the saddle, the Duke armed himself, and went in full armour to hear mass; and after mass he said certain prayers in his oratory, which lasted sufficiently long," says the good knight, " and I remember," he continues, that I and the other pages on horseback heard the common men murmuring and complaining of his delay, saying, that he might another time very well make up his Pater nosters." So, at last, Jehan de Chaumergy, first esquire of the stable, went to the duke, who replied to him, "Si Dieu m'a donné victoire, il la me gardera et peut autant faire à ma requeste (s'il luy plaist de m'estre misericors) qu'il fera à l'aide de toute ma chevalerie." There are my nephews and servants, who, with God's aid, will sustain my cause till I come *. Olivier de la Marche says, that when a young page, he was displeased with a very brave knight, the Seigneur de Ternant, for not bearing a banne rolle of devotion. "Car plus est l'homme de haut affaire,” he says, "plus doit à Dieu de recognoissance; et tant plus a d'honneur, tant plus doit doubter et craindre celuy Dieu qui le luy peut oster et faire perdre +." I conceive, that even these examples are abundantly sufficient to shew how egregiously the moderns have erred in supposing that a spirit of religion was unknown in the middle ages. The religion of chivalry was far from cons sisting in a superstitious observance of external ceremo→ nies. It was founded upon the spiritual and grand doc trine of Christianity, the Cross of Christ. They never forgot what the church taught them. "We ought to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is |