[266] Mrs. Charles Stothard, in her interesting Tour through Normandy and Brittany, observes (p. 231.) that the massive walls which once surrounded the town of Hennebon, remain in many places entire, and must have been impregnable in their strength and construction.
[267] Froissart, c. 82. Lors descendit la Comtesse du Chastel, à joyeuse chere, et vint baiser messiu Gautier de Manny et ses compaignons, les uns apres les autre, deux fois ou trois, comme vaillante Dame.
[268] Spenser, Vision of the World’s Vanity, st. 9.
[269] Like Gonzalo in the Tempest. “Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done; but I would fain die a dry death.” Act i. sc. 1.
[270] The principal facts in the heroic life of the Countess of Mountfort are recorded by Froissart, c. 68, 72, 80, 91, &c. Lobineau, Histoire de Bretagne, vol. i. p. 320, &c. Argentré, Histoire de Bretagne, liv. vii. c. 9, 10.
[271] Hist. Gen. de la France, l. 452.
[272] See the chronicle of M. Villani in the 14th vol. of Muratori, Rerum Scrip. Ital.; and Sismondi, Histoire des Rep. Ital. tom. vi. c. 45. Italy has not many romantic associations, and there are now no remains of Cesena to awaken the admiration of the traveller to the heroism of Marzia. Forsyth, Remarks on Italy, vol. ii. p. 266.
[273] Fairy Queen, book iii. canto 4, st. 1.
[274] Ibid, book iii. canto ii. st. 27.