considerable interest from the novelty of the character of its hero, and the singular enchantments he employs. In his infancy Maugis was stolen by a Moorish slave, with the intention of carrying him into Paganism. He was rescued, however, by the united efforts of a lion and leopard, and was picked up by a benevolent fairy, who was fortunately traversing the desert at the moment. A dwarf, whom the fairy kept in pay, soon after acquainted her with the lineage of the child. Having received this information, she conferred on him the benefits of baptism, and sent him to her brother to be initiated in magic, the rudiments of which he acquired with wonderful facility. His first magical experiment was of the boldest description,he personated the devil, and in that character passed into the island of Boucault where he subdued and tamed the horse Bayardo, an exploit attributed by Tasso to Rinaldo. This unruly steed inhabited a cavern which was guarded by a horrible dragon, and was in the vicinity of a volcano which formed one of the principal mouths of hell. There is a striking resemblance between this adventure and the eastern story of the Rakshe, a winged horse, which rendered the Dry island uninhabitable till he was subdued by Housheng, King of Persia, who tamed and mounted him in all his wars with the Dives. Maugis having signalized himself by the conquest of Bayardo, was admitted to the necromantic university of Toledo, where he completed his studies, and, according to some accounts, held the professor of magic's chair in that city, which was distinguished as a school for the mysteries of the black art:—

Having perfected himself in the mysteries of magic, the

diable, et comment il enchanta le diable Raouart et occist le serpent qui gardoit la roche par laquelle chose il conquist le bon cheval Bayard et aussi conquesta le grant Sorgalant.-Paris, 1527, 4to.

enchanter assisted Marsirius, King of Spain, in his wars with the Amiral of Persia, and availed himself of his incantations to forward and conceal his own intrigue with the queen. He also aided Arnaud of Montcler in his contest with Charlemagne, deceiving the enemy by fascinating their eyes, or entering the hostile camp in various disguises, after the manner of Merlin.

The story of the enchantments and amours of Maugis is prosecuted in The Conquest of Trebizond, by Rinaldo.* This romance opens with an account of a magnificent tournament proclaimed by Charlemagne, to which Rinaldo comes incognito, and bears away all the honour and prizes. At length the ceremony is interrupted by an embassy from the King of Cappadocia announcing his intentions of embarking for France in order to joust with all the knights of Charlemagne. Rinaldo, however, anticipates his design, and having landed in Cappadocia, overthrows and deposes its monarch. Maugis, who had accompanied Rinaldo, meanwhile engaged in an intrigue with the daughter of the King of Cyprus. His amour was detected by a dwarf, who revealed it to the king. It is true the princess burnt the dwarf, but this could not prevent her father from besieging Maugis in a citadel into which he had thrown himself. The Emperor of Trebizond aided the King of Cyprus, and Rinaldo came to the assistance of Maugis. The allied monarchs were defeated and slain in a great battle, after which Rinaldo was elected by the army Emperor of Trebizond. This romance is the foundation of the Italian poem entitled "Trabisonda nel quale si tratta nobillissime battaglie con la vita e morte de Rinaldo."

Maugis continues to act a distinguished part in the popular romance of the Four Sons of Aymon,† which was taken from a metrical tale written by Huon de Villeneuve as far back as the 13th century. In the prose work there is detailed the events of a war carried on by Charlemagne against the four brothers, in revenge for the loss of his

* La Conqueste de tres puissant Empire de Trebissonde, par Renaud de Montauban.-Paris, sans date, 4to.

+ Quatre fils Aymon, Paris, 1525, folio.

nephew, who had been slain by Rinaldo, a contest in which Maugis renders, by his usual arts, the most powerful assistance to his rebellious kinsmen. There is also an account of the reiterated treasons of Gano, and the victories which Rinaldo gains over the Saracen invaders of the dominions of Yvon, King of Gascony, who bestows on his champion the castle of Montauban and his sister Clarice, which it will be recollected, is the name of the heroine in the Rinaldo of Tasso. At length this celebrated paladin retired to a hermitage; but, for the sake of occasional exercise, hired himself out as a mason. piety drew on him the hatred of his fellow-labourers, and one day, while he was praying at the bottom of the wall of a church which they were building, they threw on his head an enormous stone, by which he was slain before he had completed his devotions.

His

The concluding scenes of the life of Maugis are exhibited in the Chronicle of Mabrian. Like his cousin Rinaldo, this enchanter had retired to a hermitage; he emerges, however, from this seclusion, and repairs to Rome, where he attracts so much notice by his eloquence and the sanctity of his manners, that on the death of Leo he is raised to the pontifical chair. He soon, however, abdicates his new-acquired dignity, and again betakes himself to the hermitage. About this time Richardette, the youngest brother of Rinaldo, was assassinated by the treachery of Gano. Alard and Guichard, his two surviving brothers, suspecting that the crime had been committed by the command, or with the connivance, of Charlemagne, publicly insult their sovereign, and after this imprudence fly for refuge to the hermitage of Maugis. The emperor having discovered the place of their retreat, kindled faggots at the entrance of the cavern, and smoked the heroes to death.

There also exists a French romance concerning Charlemagne and the family of Aymon, entitled Morgant le Geant, the incidents of which correspond precisely with those of the Morgante Maggiore of Pulci. It is probable, however, that the romance was translated from the poem, as it was not customary with the Italians to

versify so closely the lying productions of preceding fablers.*

With the class of romances relating to Charlemagne we may range the well-known story of Valentine and Orson, which was written during the reign of Charles VIII. and was first printed in 1495, at Lyons, in folio.

There are a few romances of Chivalry concerning French knights, which cannot properly be classed among those connected with Charlemagne and his paladins. Of these the only one worth mentioning is Le Petit Jehan de Saintré, which was composed in the middle of the 15th century by Anthony de la Sale, a Burgundian author, and printed in 1517 and 1723. Tresan says, that this work gives a great deal of insight into the manners of the age and customs of the French court; in short, that it may be considered as the most national of all the French romances. "I have not seen," says Warton, any French romance which has preserved the practices of chivalry more copiously than Saintré. It must have been an absolute masterpiece for the rules of tilting, martial customs, and public ceremonies prevailing in the author's age."-Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poet. vol. i. p. 334.

Baudouin, or Baldwin, Count of Flanders, is the hero of another romance, which may be here mentioned. This count is represented as inflamed with such excessive pride, that he refused the daughter of the King of France in marriage. One day, while hunting in a forest, he met a lady of majestic stature, arrayed in magnificent attire, who accosted him and declared that she was the heiress of a splendid throne in Asia; but that she had fled from the court of her father to avoid a marriage which was disagreeable to her. The count, incited by love and ambition, espoused and carried her to the French court. When a year had elapsed, the Asiatic princess brought him two beautiful daughters; yet Baldwin, though in the enjoyment of great domestic felicity, awaited with much impatience the return of a courier he had despatched to the dominions of his royal father-in-law. Meanwhile a hermit having obtained admittance to the presence of the count, expressed his doubts as to the existence of the Asiatic empire, and concluded with begging leave to dine in company with the princess. The request being complied with, when the other guests are seated at table the hermit enters the apartment, and, without farther exordium, commands the landlady to return to the hell whence she had originally issued. This mode of address, which unfortunately none of the count's visiters had hitherto thought of employing at his board, has the desired effect on the hostess, who vanishes with hideous yells, but not without doing irreparable da. mage both to the dwelling and the dinner.

The fact is, that Baldwin, as a punishment for his pride, had been unwittingly married to the devil. The remainder of the romance is occupied with a crusade performed by the husband, as an expiation for this unfortunate connexion, and with the adventures of his two

The romances of the second class, or those which relate to Charlemagne, so closely resemble the fictions

daughters, who turn out better than could have been anticipated from their diabolical descent.

Unions of the description formed in this romance were not only common fictions, but were credited by the vulgar. It was at one time generally believed that an ancestor of Geoffrey of Plantagenet had espoused a demon, and from this alliance Fordun accounts for the profligacy of King John. Andrew of Wyntoun, in his Orygynale Cronykill of Scotland, attributes a similar origin to Macbeth; and a story founded on this species of connexion is related as a fact in the 35th chapter of Luther's Colloquia Mensalia. This superstition, indeed, appears to have existed in all ages and countries, and seems one of the most prevalent to which mankind have been addicted. The Jewish Rabbins believed in an intercourse between the fallen angels and the daughters of the children of men; in particular, they believed that Cain was the progeny of the devil, having been the offspring of the woman and the serpent. The marriage, however, of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, above related, and other unions of a similar description, seem to have been suggested by the story of Menippus, in Philostratus's Life of Appollonius of Tyana. A young man, called Menippus, while travelling in the neighbourhood of Corinth, was accosted by a beautiful woman, who said she was a Phoenician, and avowed she was captivated with his love. She assured him that she was possessed of ample revenues, and was proprietor of a magnificent palace in the vicinity of Corinth, where they might reside in the indulgence of every imaginable luxury and pleasure. Menippus went with her to this abode in the evening, continued for some time to frequent her society, and at length fixed on a day for the celebration of the nuptial ceremony. Meanwhile the

philosopher Appollonius remarking some peculiarities in the aspect of Menippus, thus addressed him: "I perceive plainly, O Menippus, that you harbour or are harboured by a serpent." Menippus replied, that serpent or not, he was to espouse her on the morrow. Appollonius invited himself to the nuptial banquet: during the entertain. ment he positively declared the golden vessels, precious furniture, and delicious viands to be accursed delusion and phantom, and he denounced the lady as a Lamia, who devoured those whom she attracted by her charms. The bride entreated him to change the subject of conversation, but Appollonius persisting in his invective, she in turn began to revile the philosophers and sophists. Meanwhile the furniture was disappearing, and the viands were perceptibly melting away, on which the bride burst into tears, and begged to be excused from revealing her name and lineage. The philosopher, however, whom she had irritated by her rash attack on the sophists, was inexorable, and would not be satisfied till she explicitly confessed that she was, in truth, a confirmed Lamia, who had inveigled Menippus merely for the pleasure of devouring him, a privilege she