[82] Restored 1901.
[83] First used on some jettons d’argent struck for distribution on January 1, 1775. It is, perhaps, an adaptation in elegiac verse of the ‘Ob cives servatos’ found on certain coins of Augustus.
[84] Jacques Bonhomme was the nickname of the French peasantry, and his cry had been
‘Cessez, cessez, gens d’armes et piétons
De piller et manger le Bonhomme
Qui de long temps Jacques Bonhomme
Se nomme.’
[85] It was in this very year that Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Vendôme, in expiation of the vow which he had made when held prisoner by his brother, the Count of Marche, having come as a pilgrim to Chartres, began to build the Flamboyant chapel, in the south aisle of the Cathedral, which bears his name.
[86] Of this La Hire the following anecdote is told. He was marching to relieve Montargis, which was in dire straits after a long resistance to the besieging English. On his way he met a priest, from whom he demanded absolution. ‘Confess your sins, then,’ returned the priest. ‘I have no time,’ was the reply, ‘for I am in a hurry to engage the English; and, besides, the tale of a soldier’s sins is not a short one.’ The priest somewhat hesitatingly pronounced the sentence of absolution. La Hire immediately knelt down by the wayside and prayed aloud, ‘God, I pray Thee to do this day on La Hire’s behalf what Thou wouldst that La Hire should do for Thee, supposing he was God and Thou wast La Hire.’ His somewhat uncanonical prayer was granted. He attacked the English and obliged them to raise the siege of Montargis. I note a curious parallel between this prayer of his and the quaint old English epitaph of John Hildebrod,—
‘Here lies the body of old John Hildebrod.
Have mercy on his soul, O God!
As he would do, if he were God,
And you were old John Hildebrod.’
[87] Contemporary MS. (Bibliothèque Municipale), Duparc, 1578.
[88] Siège de Paris, Francisque Sarcey.
[89] This incident is represented in the engraving by Perrissim, 1570, here reproduced. It will be noticed that the artist has ignored the river.