enhanced by the fact that the trial was to be made
near Pitres, a few miles from Rouen, where there is a green hill,
still known as "La Cote des Deux Amans." In Rouen there lived a king
who had an only daughter, very fair and beautiful, whose hand was
sought in marriage of many. Loath to part with her, he bethought him
how he could thwart her suitors. To this end he caused it to be
proclaimed far and wide that he would have for son-in-law only him who
could carry his daughter to the top of the hill without pausing to
rest. Many came, but each in turn failed, greatly to the content of
the princess, since secretly she loved, and was loved by, a young
knight who frequented her father's Court. At last, constrained by
love, the knight, though with much misgiving, determines to undertake
the adventure. Before allowing him to do this, the maiden, in order to
ensure his success, and herself fasting meanwhile, bids him go to
Salerno,[16] near Naples, a school of medicine famous in the Middle
Ages, and ask of her kinswoman there, who was well practised in
medicine, a draught to give him the needful strength for his task.
Returned with this potion, he makes the attempt, but so great is his
desire to reach the goal quickly, that he will not slacken his speed
to drink from the phial carried by his Love, but hastens forward, only
to fall dead as he reaches the summit of the hill.

[15] Hertz, _op. cit._ p. 396.

[16] This mention of Salerno is of interest on account of the
reference to women practising there as medical experts. The
origin of the School remains in obscurity, and it is not
until the ninth century, when the names of certain Salerno
physicians appear in the archives, that we get any definite
information with regard to it. It seems to have been a purely
secular institution, but it is quite possible that its
development was aided by the Benedictines, who became
established there in the seventh century, and who made
medical science one of their principal studies. Before the
middle of the eleventh century there were many women there
who either practised medicine or acted as professors of the
science, and some of the latter even combined surgery with
medicine in their teaching and treatises. These women doctors
were much sought after by the sick, and were much esteemed by
their brother-professionals, who cited them as authorities.
That the sexes were o