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THE PROVENCAL TALE

'There lived, in the province of Bretagne, a noble Baron, fanificence and courtly hospitalities His castle was graced with

ladies of exquisite beauty, and thronged with illustrious knights; for

the honour he paid to feats of chivalry invited the brave of distant

countries to enter his lists, and his court was htto their harps romantic fictions, taken from the Arabians, or

adventures of chivalry, that befel knights during the crusades, or the

martial deeds of the Baron, their lord;--while he, surrounded by his

knights and ladies, banqueted in the great hall of his castle, where the

costly tapestry, that adorned the walls with pictured exploits of

his ancestors, the cases, the gorgeous banners, that waved along the roof, the sulittered on the

sideboards, the nuay liveries of the attendants, with the chivalric and splendid attire

of the guests, united to fornificence, such as we may

not hope to see in these DEGENERATE DAYS

'Of the Baron, the following adventure is related One night, having

retired late from the banquet to his chamber, and dismissed his

attendants, he was surprised by the appearance of a stranger of a noble