[31] I devote my selections from this book mainly to showing the manner in which the good canon Froissart picked up matter for his Chronicles from the conversation of chance travellers as he rode on his way; together with a glimpse of the handsome person and brilliant court of the great Béarnese lord Gaston Phœbus, Count de Foix. The time is the year 1388.—Ed.
[32] His mother had been sent by her husband to bring home her dowry, in the hands of her brother the King of Navarre. The latter refused to send it; and the lady therefore remained in his country, fearing the anger of her husband if she should return without it.—Ed.
[33] The young readers of Froissart may remember this passage when they come to read Chaucer’s account of the young squire who “Carf byforn his fadur at the table” (i.e., carved before his father at the table).—Ed.
[34] For the sake of further variety I extract from Froissart’s fourth volume a lively picture of a crusade against the Saracens. The time is the last decade of the fourteenth century; more particularly, two months of the year 1390.—Ed.
[35] Machines for throwing stones.—Ed.
[36] Which I have selected for a concluding chapter because it is the last but one of Froissart’s book, and brings before us several persons who have figured in the history, as dramatis personæ come forth at the last act of the play. Here are King Edward, with whose coronation my abridgment begins; Queen Philippa, whom we saw him marry; and King Richard II., whom we last beheld in front of Wat Tyler and his rebels.—Ed.