there, but he saw more than six hundred. It was only, however, in the course of the fifteenth century, that the higher bourgeoisie and the noblesse began to intermix on an equality. This was encouraged by Louis XI., who gave honours and appointments to men of the burgher class, and encouraged their wives to go to

court.

It is not to be concealed that during all this time there had been a sinking among the aristocracy, at the same time with the rising among the bourgeoisie. The châtelains had more ways of spending their wealth on a large scale, and their pride, and love of action and display, led them into constant extravagance, while they had fewer means of repairing their losses. After a certain period of feudal history, we begin to hear rather frequently of poor châtelains and of poor knights, and we find them seeking to enrich themselves by alliances with the unaristocratic classes, although they continued to regard them with all their old social prejudices. The story, which is embodied in the fabliau of the Houce Partie, turns on an incident of this kind. There was a worthy burgher of Abbeville who, with his wife and only son, removed to Paris, where he was respected for his wisdom and courtesy. At the end of six years the wife died, and the burgher, left alone with his son, began to look round for an honourable marriage for him. Now there were in the country three knights who were brothers, who were descended of high families both by father and mother, and who were distinguished in arms;—

Mès n'avoient point d'eritage
Que tout n'eussent mis en gage,
Terres et bois et tenemenz,
Por siurre les tornoiemenz.
Bien avoit sor lor tenéure

Quatre vingt livres à usure,
Qui moult les destraint et escille.

But they had no inheritance left
Which they had not put all in pawn,
Lands, and woods, and tenements,
In order to follow the tournaments.
There was upon their fief quite
Eighty livres at usury,

Which much afflicted and impoverished
them.

Barbazan, Fabliaux, vol. iv. p. 475.

But the oldest of the knights, who was a widower, had a fair daughter, who had inherited from her mother a house in Paris, near the residence of the burgher in question, and the knights fixed upon his son as a husband for her, with a view merely to his father's wealth. The match was soon arranged, but the burgher was persuaded to pass the whole of his property over to his son, on the understanding that he was to live with him as one of the family. The sequel of the story is intended to show the folly of a father giving his property to his children before his death. The

7