1340 I of Gaunt born. d 199. 1366 H. Bolinbrot (b. 2.1413) Hotspur b.

1369 Ric 11. b + 1400

Dates from Tylet.

·1376 B.P. died. (b. 1330) (Gécy 46. Poitiers 567

17

Ed III.d.

Any 9.87 Henry of Monmouth b.

1390-2 Bolinbroke in Barbary & Prussia

1898 B. banished after quarrel with horfolk.

1999

Richard in

in Ireland. Young Henry knighted.

Bolingbroke lands July

Richard lands Auguest. resigns October

13 October. Henry IV crowned.

15 Henry of all, created Prince of Wales. 1400 14 Feb. Richard's death.

1403 Battle of Shrewsbury.

1413 Henry IV died. Hewry Vcrowned.

1415 October 25. Agincourt.

1418 Siege of Rosew.

1420 Marriage of Henry.

1421 Birth of Howry. VI.

1422 Death of Henry V.

'DATES FROM TYLER.'

Facsimile of MS. page from W. M. Thackeray's Note Book;

THE KNIGHTS OF BORSELLEN.

BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

NOTE.

My Father used sometimes to speak to us of a mediaval romance that he had intended to write. There is Mr. Motley's record of hearing him say, that he was thinking about a novel of the time of Henry V. which would be his capo d'opera, and in which the ancestors of all his present characters, Warringtons, Pendennises, and the rest should be introduced.' 'It would be a most magnificent performance,' he said, and no one would read it.'

I have already said how before finally starting on the novel of Denis Duval' he was turning over another story in his mind. It was never written after all, but there are some notes which concern it in the same MS. volume containing those for Denis Duval.' The story which was never written belonged to the days of Henry V., and we had seen him reading for it from time to time in Monstrelet and in Froissart.

This novel of my Father's did not reach beyond the opening chapters, which are printed here for the first time; they seem to date from about 1841, when he was living and working in Paris. In this early fragment one is constantly struck by the resemblance to some of his later work, such as Esmond' or Pendennis'; there is the same chord in the sentences, the same methods are used to create the impression of actuality. A friend suggests that in old Castel-Sarrasin we have the original of Major Pendennis, who was not to be born for some four hundred years, and no wonder we are reminded of him since the Pendennises and the Castlewoods

had the blood of these mediaval ancestors flowing in their veins. Though the story of Franck de Borsellen was not continued by my father, we can see what use he made of his early studies in The Legend of the Rhine,' ' Rebecca and Rowena,' and The Prize Novelists.'

The description of the Knights in Barbazure' will be remembered by readers of Punch,' especially that of Romané de Clos Vougeot, the stately warrior mounted on his destrière travelling from Acquitaine through Berry, Picardy, and Limousin. He and his companion are described as 'caparisoned in the fullest trappings of Feudal War. The arblast, the mangonel, the demi culverin and the cuisard of the period glittered upon the neck and chest of the war-steed, while the rider with chamfron and catapult, with ban and arrière ban, morion, timbrel, battle axe and diffard and the other appurtenances of ancient chivalry, rode stately on his steel-clad charger, himself a tower of steel.''

Mediaval records and MSS. had a great attraction for the author of Barbazure,' as indeed for many other great authors and poets of his generation, and that which preceded it. The chronological list here given belongs to this particular phase, and we have more than one old record evidently concerning the story of the Borsellens, for which he had read up so carefully. My Father's heroes, Jehan and Franck de Borsellen, belonged to the times chronicled by Shakespeare, when the English invaded France in those stirring days of Monstrelet and Froissart. We used to see him in his study reading the big volumes, which were kept on the lower shelf of his bookcase. At the end of his life, just· before writing ‘Denis Duval,' he hesitated, as we have seen, as to whether he should not revert to the story for which he had once read up so carefully and of which he had written the opening chapters. The one fact concerning this novel which is most vividly impressed upon my mind is that he told me

We have consulted the highest authority on Heraldry, from whom we learn these details are peculiar, but possible.