impossibility. Mutual love was not recognised, therefore mutual fidelity was ignored. Sir Alonzo the brave might love the fair Imogene, and be loved in return with a soulful devotion, but that was of little consequence in the eyes of the king and the law. Sir Alonzo was the tenant of lands and a chattel of the king; there was, therefore, in him a pecuniary value, and he was treated accordingly. This is one fashion of restraining the imagination of Alonzo the brave. Philip FitzRobert offers to the king £200 sterling, 100 bacon hogs, and 100 cheeses, to have in custody the land which belonged to Yvo de Munbi with his heir, until the heir be of age and ought to marry, with the advice of the king and the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Such a bargain would place Sir Alonzo the brave, willing or unwilling, in the arms of a damsel of the house of FitzRobert, the cult of which may be estimated by the hogs and cheeses. The domestic pæan would hardly be "Arms and the man, I sing," and yet the transaction was of chivalry.

In the highest ranks vast sums passed to effect these little arrangements, from which the king obtained a very considerable revenue. John, Earl of Lincoln, gave 3,000 marks-say £40,000 of present money to have the marriage of Richard de Clare for the benefit of Matilda, his eldest daughter, and the money had to be secured by the pledges of his friends, the payment being spread over a term of years. Simon de Montfort gave 10,000 marks--nearly £150,000to have the custody of the lands and heir of Gilbert de Umfraville with the marriage of the heir. These transactions may be described as of the simple order, being far above the reach of rivalry, which in John's ways meant jobbery. There were others more involved, for faithless Lackland was exorbitant in his demands, and kept possession till the highest bidder could be found; and in more than one instance -when the "chattel" was easier of reach, and so commanded a greater number of bidders—after the sale to one man had been arranged, a larger offering by some other aspirant deprived him of his intended bargain. Varying influences mark the variety of these transactions. Sewal Fitz Henry, with a most clerkly knowledge of the table of affinity, offers to the king one hundred marks for license to marry the sister of his wife, Isabel Sewal de Maniai, to his nephew; and also a destrier and a palfrey which Geoffrey FitzPeter had received, with a view of hurrying the matter, as we may believe, and avoiding disappointment. This little arrangement was coolly set aside when Philip de Ulcot came and offered one hundred pounds! That was sound political economy, my masters !-selling in the highest market with the further advantage of not having bought. It was also the

most astute of trading, for it ignored all motives of conscience. King John, who knew how to drive a bargain as well as any modern Yorkshire horsedealer, is certainly maligned when described as worthless; he was the greatest master of finance who ever occupied the English throne.

Then we have the wiles and betimes the solicitudes of the mothers of chivalry. It is due to their emotions to describe them as for the most part worthy of their object. Hugh de Haversham offers the king two hundred marks to have the custody of the land and heir of William de Clinton, with the marriage of the heir. Hugh was seeking a bargain, which the widowed mother, Isabel de Clinton, determined to deprive him of, either on the score of love or barter. She offered John Lackland three hundred marks for the marriage, and he cancelled the bargain with Hugh. There is no doubt John resorted to these tricks to squeeze impressionable and tender-hearted parents. Sometimes he had to meet combinations well calculated to baffle even his astuteness. Gilbert, son of Gilbert de Calweleya, and Alicia, his mother, offer eighty marks and two palfreys that he, young Gilbert, may have the land which belonged to Gilbert his father, and that he may marry according to his own pleasure, with the advice of Alicia, his mother, who may follow her own counsel in marrying him. This was evidently an instance of the careful mother having the bride-elect under her own wing. Gundreda, who was the wife of Geoffrey Huse, offers to the king two hundred marks to have the custody of Geoffrey, his son and heir, with all his land, until he be of such age that he may and ought to hold land, and that she may dispose of him in marriage with the advice of his kindred and friends. What little project Gundreda was working out thus thoughtfully we have not learnt, but she clearly intended her boy should be pro. tected, even at the cost of a very smart fine. If all the transactions of chivalry could be reduced to these little diplomacies we might not speak so ill of it.

One of John's most shameless bargainings runs in a memorandum referring to the stately house of Neville, of which Mary of Middleham, an enforced wife, was then saying she would be no man's mere plaything. Hugh de Neville offers thirty marks for a marriage for the use of his granddaughter. John took his offer without naming the "chattel" to be supplied, but did not forget to add this condition :"If anyone is willing to give more for that wardship than Hugh offers, let such person have it, unless Hugh is willing to give the same for it!" As we have already said, John was indeed a master of finance -far above the manufacture of one-pound notes. Another instance

of his greatness lies in the experience of Thomas Noel, who offered three hundred marks and three palfreys to marry his younger daughter to Eustace FitzStephen, Geoffrey FitzPeter, the sheriff, being commanded to take some pledges thereon; "and the same earl shall also give to the king one good goshawk which was in the possession of Geoffrey FitzPeter." Greedy John Lackland! That "good goshawk" was merely a violent seizure thy rapacity could not pass by.

Love-making in the days of chivalry was not a passion: as we have seen, it was a trade, and of a debased order in some of its branches. It is true brides were won, bridegrooms were hooked, even in those sad days; but neither end was reached by the powers of love and hardihood. The successful agency was then wholly, as now mainly, money; but this perhaps may be said in favour of the earlier method-the money was tendered in the open market-place, and the "chattel" put up to the highest bidder. There was no attempt to disguise this fact by arranged intervals of billing and cooing. It was not the prerogative of the Queen of Beauty to lay her own fair charms and broad acres at the feet of the bravest of the brave because he had won her admiration by the prowess of his lance or the lightning strokes of his deadly brand. As a wife, she might intrigue in the after-days, and she did, but then !-chivalry was satisfied. Nor was she singular in this deprivation. Rosy-cheeked Phyllis might not single out the best dancer on the village green, or the deftest archer at the village butts, and bid him come to her as a husband. Such power was completely and legally withdrawn from each of them—and in the case of poor Phyllis to her shame, and to the worst parental misery of her father. And if she intrigued, why she copied her betters!

Lord Lochinvar may have unhorsed all comers, and have proved that Lady Clara Vere de Vere, who had given him her badge to carry through the fray, "was peerless of beauty and spotless of fame"; but there his efforts in the way of personal regard absolutely ended. Clara may have laid her flushed cheek upon Lochinvar's manly breast, and with the rosiest of lips, the most downcast of eyes, have declared in the witching tones of maidenly modesty, "My soul, I love thee"; but that was all she was permitted to do on the right side of morality and honesty of life. Under no circumstances, except the advance of cash, or hams, palfreys, hens and eggs which had immediate cash value, might she complete her declaration by bringing forward the priest and having the knot tied. Colin's yeoman-fortune and matchless strength may have captivated Phyllis, and earned the flocks and herds of her yeoman father; Colin and

Phyllis may have repeated all the natural effusions of Clara the peerless and proud Lochinvar; but there also came the end of their honest and affectionate efforts. In each case the check-string of the law was tightened by the cursed love of gold, and individual wishes were despised.

But

Norman civilisation had given the ominous phrase, baron et femme, the antithesis of love and affection, a phrase which has to be translated in the light of the above expressions, bargain and sale; it was a dreadful substitute for the old native expression, gaffer and gammer. But this may be said for it, the medieval courts were never pestered with actions for breach of promise, and they knew but very little of divorce, for society could not contemplate universal outbreak. Norman civilisation had rendered these things impossible. When the "chattel" had to be sold by a third party the promises of lovers were but the beginning of disappointment—a receipt for the pecuniary consideration was the only validity. this arrangement was not the absolute remedy for villany, for even with it as a safeguard confiding damsels found too late men would betray. One instance of the wiles of a base deceiver illustrates the humanity of human nature, for they come up from their grave of six centuries with the living features of to-day. In the reign of Edward I., Agnes de Sparkesford, a beguiled Somersetshire heiress, presumably of mature years and declining opportunity, impleaded William de Potenay, a brisk youth who insidiously wandered abroad for the prey that home would deny him. Notwithstanding the candour of the age, William had acquired all the arts of the modern betrayer, "because under the hope of marriage she had enfeoffed him of her lands." This being done he coolly threw her over, telling her the insulting truth that he was married to another woman. William was clearly a finished artist, but the outraged Agnes was superior to the feebleness of love, so she "had him up." The stolid Somersetshire jury did not appreciate his artistic qualities in the light he would have them shown. At their hands the rascal received a merited exposure and punishment. They plainly declared William came to Agnes and made her understand he would willingly marry her, "to which she consented." Then after the lapse of several days-she had been somewhat urgent, as we perceive-" he again treated with her of contracting the marriage between them, but he said to her it would be a hard thing for him to marry her, except he might be sure of her lands if he should survive her." William's cool reasoning impressed the sympathetic damsel-an unprotected female, as we may almost perceive-to the fullest extent for which

it was designed. Agnes, acting precisely as the police details show hungry females to be acting to-day, placed him in seizin of her lands, "accepting him and pressing that the marriage should be completed "just as confiding housemaids now do who have watches. and little accumulations in the savings' banks. Then the monster laid bare his treachery: "he excused himself, urging his prior marriage "-which also is precisely what the pinks of chivalry do to confiding housemaids. The sentence of the court was worthy of the gallant's enormities, and quite in accordance with the most advanced of modern police magistrate's ideas. William was committed to gaol and ordered to pay forty marks damages-say £600 of present money-the sheriffs of Somersetshire and Hampshire being ordered to seize his lands and levy the amount of damages.

Though there were these dark spots in the arena of matrimonial legislation, post-nuptial life did not brighten in revenge of them. The schoolboy's maxim, "a bad beginning makes a good ending," was not universally true. Incompatibility of temper had its outbursts, and by reason of its surroundings was apt to become sullen, hateful defiance. In 1209 Elias, son of Elias, gains immortality by his "contumacy." This sturdy knave, accused of "despising his wife," boldly admits the impeachment, "and said he wished to stand the consideration of Holy Church, and found pledges for it." He at least had the courage of his convictions; the details of his trouble we unfortunately do not know. Capital crimes were also known, though infrequent, but often diabolical when they did happen. A startling example of matrimonial rancour occurred in 1212, when the sheriff of Southampton was ordered to take into the king's hands a knight's fee belonging to Avice, wife of Simon de Aurefeld, who was adjudged to be burnt for the death of Simon, her husband. The hearing of that trial, now so silently reposing in the long past ages, would be a great sensation; for in the nature of the times we may read that dame Avice had become weary of the man to whom she had been transferred as a "chattel."

The sins of affectionate impulse then were more frequent, and often had highly ludicrous sides in the compromises they resulted in. In 1240 Adam de Alta Ripa was arrested to answer H. de Pateshull, bishop of Coventry and Lichefield, why, without the episcopal license, he permitted himself to be married, seeing that his marriage belonged to the bishop, because Adam de Alta Ripa, Adam's father, held of Ralph Paynel by knight's service, the custody of whose land and heir the bishop had by sale from the king. The position of the fledgling husband was sufficiently distressing, for the servitude of the